JP7485509B2 - Program, information processing method, and terminal - Google Patents

Description

This disclosure relates to a program executed on a terminal, a display method for a terminal, a terminal, and a program executed on a server.

Conventionally, the destination floor of an elevator is specified by a hard key provided on the elevator. Patent Document 1 discloses that the destination floor of an elevator can be specified from a user's terminal.

JP 2017-171422 A

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a program is executed on a terminal that communicates with a server that stores information regarding advertisements, and the program is executed on the terminal to receive first advertising information, which is information regarding advertisements, from the server via a communication unit of the terminal based on first information regarding the floor at which a user of the first terminal gets off the elevator, transmitted from the first terminal, and to display the first advertisement, which is an advertisement based on the first advertising information, in a display area of the terminal.
Moreover, according to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing method for a terminal communicating with a server that stores information relating to advertisements, comprising: receiving first advertising information, which is information relating to advertisements, from the server by a communication unit of the terminal based on first information regarding the floor at which a user of the first terminal gets off the elevator, transmitted from the first terminal; and displaying the first advertisement, which is an advertisement based on the first advertising information, in a display area of the terminal.
Furthermore, according to a third aspect of the present invention, a terminal that communicates with a server that stores information relating to advertisements includes a communication unit that receives first advertising information from the server based on first information regarding the floor at which a user of the first terminal gets off the elevator, transmitted from the first terminal, and a display unit that displays a first advertisement that is an advertisement based on the first advertising information.
Furthermore, according to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a terminal that communicates with a server that stores information relating to advertisements includes a processor that reads a program from a memory and executes processing based on the program, and the processor executes the following operations: receiving first advertising information, which is information relating to advertisements, from the server via a communication unit of the terminal based on first information regarding a floor at which a user of the first terminal gets off the elevator, transmitted from the first terminal; and displaying the first advertisement, which is an advertisement based on the first advertising information, in a display area of the terminal.
Furthermore, according to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing method of a server that communicates with a terminal and stores information related to advertising, comprising receiving first information related to a floor at which a user of the terminal gets off the elevator from the terminal by a communication unit of the server, and transmitting first advertising information, which is information related to advertising, from the terminal by the communication unit based on the information.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a communication system, and is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a terminal and a server. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an overview of a communication system according to an embodiment, in which (a) shows how a terminal is used to specify the floor at which an elevator will stop, and (b) shows how an advertisement is displayed on the terminal. FIG. 2 is a data conceptual diagram showing an example of a data configuration of advertisement management information. 4 is a data conceptual diagram showing an example of a data configuration of elevator management information. FIG. FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram showing an example of an exchange between devices in a communication system. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the terminal related to FIG. 5; 6 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the server related to FIG. 5; 6 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the elevator control device related to FIG. 5 . FIG. 11 is a sequence diagram showing another example of interactions between devices in the communication system. FIG. 11 is a sequence diagram showing another example of interactions between devices in the communication system. 13 is a flowchart illustrating another example of the operation of the server. FIG. 13 is a data conceptual diagram showing an example of the data structure of advertising bonus information. 10 is a sequence diagram showing an exchange of data between devices in a communication system for transmitting special information to a user. FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the terminal related to FIG. 13; 11A and 11B are screen diagrams showing examples of how special benefit information is displayed on a terminal. 14 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the server related to FIG. 13; 11 is a sequence diagram showing an example of exchanges between devices when product purchase information is transmitted to a server via a register. FIG. FIG. 11 is a sequence diagram showing an example of further exchange of advertising information between the terminal and the server. 13A is a screen diagram showing a display example in which the first advertisement is displayed, and FIG. 13B is a screen diagram showing a display example in which the next advertisement is displayed. FIG. 11 is a sequence diagram showing an example of an exchange between the devices when a floor number is specified from outside the elevator. 21 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the terminal related to FIG. 20; 21 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the server related to FIG. 20; 13A and 13B are diagrams showing examples of screens for indicating which elevator a user will board. FIG. 11 is a sequence diagram showing an example of interactions between devices when a user misidentifies the elevator he or she is about to board. 25 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the server related to FIG. 24; 11 is a sequence diagram showing an example of an exchange performed between devices when an input is made in response to an advertisement displayed on a terminal. FIG. 27 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the terminal related to FIG. 26; 27 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the server related to FIG. 26 . 13A to 13C are diagrams showing examples of screens displayed when a user makes an input in response to advertising information displayed on a terminal. 13 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of a server that identifies an advertisement according to a moving direction of an elevator. 13 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the server when the user gets off at a floor before a floor specified by the user.

<Compliance with legal matters>
It should be noted that the disclosures described herein are subject to compliance with the laws of the country of implementation, such as communications secrecy, as necessary for the implementation of the disclosure.

An embodiment for implementing a display method etc. that allows confirmation of the status of transmission or reception by a terminal according to the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings.

<System configuration>

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a communication system 1 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As disclosed in FIG. 1, in the communication system 1, a server 10 and terminals 20 (terminal 20A, terminal 20B, terminal 20C) are connected via a network 30. The server 10 provides a service that enables sending and receiving messages between terminals 20 to terminals 20 owned by users via the network 30. Note that the number of terminals 20 connected to the network 30 is not limited.

The network 30 serves to connect one or more terminals 20 to one or more servers 10. In other words, the network 30 refers to a communication network that provides a connection path so that the terminals 20 can transmit and receive data after connecting to the server 10.

One or more portions of network 30 may or may not be wired or wireless. Network 30 may include, by way of example and without limitation, an ad hoc network, an intranet, an extranet, a virtual private network (VPN), a local area network (LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN), a wide area network (WAN), a wireless WAN (WWAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), a portion of the Internet, a portion of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a cellular network, integrated service digital networks (ISDN), wireless LAN, long term evolution (LTE), code division multiple access (CDMA), Bluetooth, satellite communications, or the like, or a combination of two or more thereof. Network 30 may include one or more networks 30.

The terminal 20 (terminal 20A, terminal 20B, terminal 20C) may be any information processing terminal capable of implementing the functions described in each embodiment. Examples of the terminal 20 include, but are not limited to, a smartphone, a mobile phone (feature phone), a computer (such as, but not limited to, a desktop, laptop, tablet, etc.), a media computer platform (such as, but not limited to, a cable or satellite set-top box, digital video recorder), a handheld computer device (such as, but not limited to, a PDA (personal digital assistant), an email client, etc.), a wearable device (such as, but not limited to, a glasses-type device, a watch-type device, etc.), or other types of computers or communication platforms. The terminal 20 may also be expressed as an information processing terminal.

Because the configurations of terminals 20A, 20B, and 20C are basically the same, the following description will focus on terminal 20. In addition, as necessary, the terminal used by user X will be referred to as terminal 20X, and user information in a specified service associated with user X or terminal 20X will be referred to as user information X. Note that user information is information about a user associated with an account used by the user in a specified service. User information includes, by way of example and without limitation, information associated with a user, such as the user's name, user icon image, user age, user gender, user address, user hobbies and interests, and user identifier, which is input by the user or assigned by a specified service, and may be any one or a combination of these, or may not be the same.

The server 10 has a function of providing a predetermined service to the terminal 20. The server 10 may be any device that is an information processing device that can realize the functions described in each embodiment. The server 10 includes, but is not limited to, a server device, a computer (for example, but not limited to, a desktop, a laptop, a tablet, etc.), a media computer platform (for example, but not limited to, a cable or satellite set-top box, a digital video recorder), a handheld computer device (for example, but not limited to, a PDA, an email client, etc.), or other types of computers or communication platforms. The server 10 may also be expressed as an information processing device. When there is no need to distinguish between the server 10 and the terminal 20, the server 10 and the terminal 20 may or may not be expressed as information processing devices.

＜Hardware (HW) configuration＞

The hardware configuration of each device included in communication system 1 will be explained using Figure 1.

(1) Device hardware configuration

The terminal 20 includes a control unit 21 (CPU: central processing unit), a memory unit 28, a communication I/F 22 (interface), an input/output unit 23, a display unit 24, and a location information acquisition unit 25. The HW components of the terminal 20 are connected to each other via a bus B, by way of example and not limitation. It is not essential that the HW configuration of the terminal 20 includes all of the components. By way of example and not limitation, the terminal 20 may or may not be configured such that individual components, such as the microphone 232, the camera 234, the location information acquisition unit 25, or multiple components, are removable.

The communication I/F 22 transmits and receives various data via the network 30. The communication may be performed either wired or wirelessly, and any communication protocol may be used as long as mutual communication can be performed. The communication I/F 22 has a function of performing communication with the server 10 via the network 30. The communication I/F 22 transmits various data to the server 10 according to instructions from the control unit 21. The communication I/F 22 also receives various data transmitted from the server 10 and transmits it to the control unit 21. The communication I/F 22 may also be simply referred to as a communication unit. Furthermore, when the communication I/F 22 is configured with a physically structured circuit, it may also be referred to as a communication circuit.

The input/output unit 23 includes a device for inputting various operations to the terminal 20, and a device for outputting the results of processing performed by the terminal 20. The input/output unit 23 may be an integrated input unit and an output unit, or may be separate input unit and output unit, or may not be.

The input unit is realized by any one or combination of all types of devices that can receive input from a user and transmit information related to the input to the control unit 21. Examples of the input unit include, but are not limited to, a touch panel 231, a touch display, hardware keys such as a keyboard, a pointing device such as a mouse, a camera 234 (operation input via moving images), and a microphone 232 (operation input by voice).

The output unit is realized by any one or a combination of any type of device capable of outputting the results of processing by the control unit 21. Examples of the output unit include, but are not limited to, a touch panel, a touch display, a speaker 233 (audio output), a lens (for example, but not limited to, 3D (three dimensions) output and hologram output), a printer, etc.

The display unit 24 is realized by any one of all types of devices or a combination thereof that can display according to the display data written to the frame buffer. Examples of the display unit 24 include, but are not limited to, touch panels, touch displays, monitors (examples, but are not limited to, liquid crystal displays and OLEDs (organic electroluminescence displays)), head mounted displays (HDMs), projection mapping, holograms, devices that can display images, text information, etc. in air (which may or may not be a vacuum). Note that these display units 24 may or may not be capable of displaying display data in 3D.

If the input/output unit 23 is a touch panel, the input/output unit 23 and the display unit 24 may be arranged facing each other and have approximately the same size and shape.

The control unit 21 has circuitry that is physically structured to execute functions realized by the code or instructions contained in the program, and is realized, for example and without limitation, by a data processing device built into hardware. As such, the control unit 21 may or may not be described as a control circuit.

The control unit 21 may include, by way of example and not limitation, a central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, a processor core, a multiprocessor, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), and a field programmable gate array (FPGA).

The storage unit 28 has a function of storing various programs and various data required for the operation of the terminal 20. The storage unit 28 includes, by way of example and not limitation, various storage media such as a hard disk drive (HDD), a solid state drive (SSD), a flash memory, a random access memory (RAM), and a read only memory (ROM). In addition, the storage unit 28 may or may not be expressed as a memory.

The terminal 20 stores the program P in the memory unit 28, and by executing this program P, the control unit 21 executes the processing of each unit included in the control unit 21. In other words, the program P stored in the memory unit 28 causes the terminal 20 to realize each function executed by the control unit 21. Furthermore, this program P may or may not be expressed as a program module.

The microphone 232 is used to input audio data. The speaker 233 is used to output audio data. The camera 234 is used to obtain video data.

(2) Server hardware configuration

The server 10 comprises a control unit 11 (CPU), a memory unit 15, a communication I/F 14 (interface), an input/output unit 12, and a display unit 13. The components of the HW of the server 10 are connected to each other via a bus B, by way of example and not limitation. Note that it is not essential that the HW of the server 10 includes all of the components as the configuration of the HW of the server 10. By way of example and not limitation, the HW of the server 10 may or may not be configured such that the display unit 13 is removable.

The control unit 11 has circuitry that is physically structured to execute functions realized by the code or instructions contained in the program, and is realized, for example and without limitation, by a data processing device built into the hardware.

The control unit 11 is typically a central processing unit (CPU), but may also be a microprocessor, a processor core, a multiprocessor, an ASIC, or an FPGA, or may not be such a unit. In this disclosure, the control unit 11 is not limited to these.

The storage unit 15 has a function of storing various programs and various data required for the operation of the server 10. The storage unit 15 is realized by various storage media such as a HDD, SSD, and flash memory. However, in this disclosure, the storage unit 15 is not limited to these. Furthermore, the storage unit 15 may or may not be expressed as a memory.

The communication I/F 14 transmits and receives various data via the network 30. The communication may be performed either wired or wirelessly, and any communication protocol may be used as long as mutual communication is possible. The communication I/F 14 has a function of communicating with the terminal 20 via the network 30. The communication I/F 14 transmits various data to the terminal 20 according to instructions from the control unit 11. The communication I/F 14 also receives various data transmitted from the terminal 20 and transmits it to the control unit 11. The communication I/F 14 may also be simply referred to as a communication unit. When the communication I/F 14 is configured with a physically structured circuit, it may also be referred to as a communication circuit.

The input/output unit 12 is realized by a device that inputs various operations to the server 10. The input/output unit 12 is realized by any of all types of devices or a combination thereof that can receive input from a user and transmit information related to the input to the control unit 11. The input/output unit 12 is typically realized by hardware keys such as a keyboard, or a pointing device such as a mouse. Note that the input/output unit 12 may or may not include, but is not limited to, a touch panel, a camera (operation input via video images), or a microphone (operation input by voice). However, in the present disclosure, the input/output unit 12 is not limited to these.

The display unit 13 is typically realized by a monitor (for example, but not limited to, a liquid crystal display or an organic electroluminescence display (OLED)). The display unit 13 may or may not be a head mounted display (HDM) or the like. These display units 13 may or may not be capable of displaying display data in 3D. However, in the present disclosure, the display unit 13 is not limited to these.

The server 10 stores a program P in the memory unit 15, and by executing this program P, the control unit 11 executes the processing of each unit included in the control unit 11. In other words, the program P stored in the memory unit 15 causes the server 10 to realize each function executed by the control unit 11. This program P may or may not be expressed as a program module.

In each embodiment of the present disclosure, the present invention is described as being realized by the CPU of the terminal 20 and/or the server 10 executing the program P.

The control unit 21 of the terminal 20 and/or the control unit 11 of the server 10 may or may not realize each process by a CPU having a control circuit, but may also realize each process by a logic circuit (hardware) formed in an integrated circuit (IC (Integrated Circuit) chip, LSI (Large Scale Integration)) or a dedicated circuit. These circuits may be realized by one or more integrated circuits, and the multiple processes shown in each embodiment may or may not be realized by a single integrated circuit. Furthermore, LSIs are sometimes called VLSIs, super LSIs, ultra LSIs, etc., depending on the degree of integration. Therefore, the control unit 21 may or may not be expressed as a control circuit.

In addition, the program P (which may be, for example and not by way of limitation, a software program, computer program, or program module) of each embodiment of the present disclosure may or may not be provided in a state stored in a computer-readable storage medium. The storage medium is capable of storing the program P in a "non-transitory tangible medium." In addition, the program P may or may not be for realizing part of the functions of each embodiment of the present disclosure. Furthermore, the program P may or may not be a so-called difference file (difference program) that can realize the functions of each embodiment of the present disclosure in combination with a program P already recorded in a storage medium.

The storage medium may include one or more semiconductor-based or other integrated circuits (ICs) (such as, by way of example and not limitation, a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application specific IC (ASIC)), a hard disk drive (HDD), a hybrid hard drive (HHD), an optical disk, an optical disk drive (ODD), a magneto-optical disk, a magneto-optical drive, a floppy diskette, a floppy disk drive (FDD), a magnetic tape, a solid state drive (SSD), a RAM drive, a secure digital card, or a drive, any other suitable storage medium, or a suitable combination of two or more of these. The storage medium may be volatile, non-volatile, or a combination of volatile and non-volatile, as appropriate. It should be noted that the storage medium is not limited to these examples and may be any device or medium capable of storing the program P. Also, the storage medium may or may not be referred to as a memory.

The server 10 and/or the terminal 20 can realize the functions of the multiple functional units shown in each embodiment by reading the program P stored in the storage medium and executing the read program P.

The program PDD of the present disclosure may or may not be provided to the server 10 and/or the terminal 20 via any transmission medium capable of transmitting the program (such as a communication network or broadcast waves). The server 10 and/or the terminal 20 executes the program P downloaded via the Internet or the like, for example and not by way of limitation, to realize the functions of the multiple functional units shown in each embodiment.

In addition, each embodiment of the present disclosure may be realized in the form of a data signal embedded in a carrier wave in which the program P is embodied by electronic transmission.

At least a portion of the processing in the server 10 and/or the terminal 20 may or may not be realized by cloud computing consisting of one or more computers.

At least a part of the processing in the terminal 20 may or may not be performed by the server 10. In this case, at least a part of the processing of each functional unit of the control unit 21 of the terminal 20 may or may not be performed by the server 10.

At least a part of the processing in the server 10 may or may not be performed by the terminal 20. In this case, at least a part of the processing of each functional unit of the control unit 11 of the server 10 may or may not be performed by the terminal 20.

Unless explicitly stated, the judgment configuration in the embodiments of the present disclosure is not essential, and a specified process may or may not be executed when the judgment condition is satisfied, or when the judgment condition is not satisfied.

The programs disclosed herein are implemented using, by way of example and not limitation, scripting languages such as ActionScript and JavaScript (registered trademark), object-oriented programming languages such as Objective-C and Java (registered trademark), and markup languages such as HTML5.

<HW configuration of elevator control device 40>
The elevator control device 40 includes a communication I/F 411, an elevator control unit 412, an elevator driving unit 413, and a beacon transmission unit 414. One or more elevator control devices 40 may be provided for one building. Furthermore, the elevator control device 40 may be provided for one elevator to control that one elevator, or may be provided for multiple elevators to control each of the multiple elevators. Furthermore, the elevator control device 40 may control elevators in multiple buildings.

The communication I/F 411 transmits and receives various data via the network 30. The communication may be performed either wired or wirelessly, and any communication protocol may be used as long as the communication between the two is possible. The communication I/F 411 has a function of communicating with the server 10 via the network 30. The communication I/F 411 transmits various data to the server 10 according to instructions from the control unit 21. The communication I/F 411 also receives various data transmitted from the server 10 and transmits it to the elevator control unit 412. The communication I/F 411 may also be simply referred to as a communication unit. When the communication I/F 411 is configured with a physically structured circuit, it may also be referred to as a communication circuit.

The elevator control unit 412 instructs the elevator driving unit 413 of the floor number specified by the server 10 via the communication I/F 411. Although not shown, the elevator control unit 412 also receives user input to an input key (which may be a hard key or a soft key) provided on the elevator for specifying the floor number, and instructs the elevator driving unit 413 of the specified floor number.

The elevator drive unit 413 drives the elevator to stop at the floor instructed by the elevator control unit 412.

The beacon transmitter 414 periodically (as an example and not a limitation, every second) transmits a beacon signal including an elevator ID, which is identification information for identifying the elevator in which it is installed. The elevator ID may be replaced by a beacon ID that can identify the beacon transmitter 414. The beacon signal of the beacon transmitter 414 is a signal for notifying other surrounding devices (sometimes called peripherals) of the presence of the beacon transmitter 414, and as an example and not a limitation, a beacon signal defined by the BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy (registered trademark)) communication standard may be used, but is not limited to this. The beacon signal is a signal that can be transmitted without establishing a communication connection with other devices. The reach of the beacon signal can be determined by the transmission strength of the signal, and the stronger the signal strength, the farther the beacon signal can be transmitted. In this embodiment, the beacon transmitter 414 transmits a beacon signal with a signal strength that reaches the corresponding elevator and does not reach outside the elevator.

Note that while FIG. 1 shows a configuration in which the beacon transmitter 414 is provided in the elevator control device 40, the beacon transmitter 414 may be provided outside the elevator control device 40, and is provided for each elevator. The beacon transmitter 414 then transmits a beacon signal within a range that can reach the terminal of a user present in each elevator. The example shown in FIG. 1 shows an example in which an elevator control device 40 is provided for each elevator.

<Embodiment 1>
In the communication system 1 according to the present embodiment, as shown in Fig. 2(a), a user uses his/her own terminal 20 to specify the destination floor of an elevator installed in a building or other structure. The communication system 1 then identifies the elevator the user is in (or about to in). The communication system 1 then controls the elevator so that the identified elevator stops at the specified floor. At the same time, the communication system 1 transmits an advertisement related to the destination floor to the user's terminal 20. The terminal 20 then displays an advertisement related to the destination floor, as shown in Fig. 2(b).

While waiting for the elevator or while riding the elevator to reach the desired floor, a user may use his/her own terminal 20 to check the contents of messages exchanged with other users via the messaging service provided by the server 10 related to the communication system 1. In such cases, since the user is checking the display screen of his/her own terminal 20, various information is likely to be brought to the user's eye. Therefore, in this embodiment, advertising information related to the user's destination is provided at such times as information that is more likely to attract the user's interest, thereby making advertising more effective.

Note that the messaging service provided by the server 10 described above allows terminals 20 to exchange messages in a talk room via a messaging application. As a non-limiting example, a talk room is a user interface that allows users using the messaging service to display content sent and received on the user's terminal in the messaging service provided by the server 10. A talk room may also be called a chat room. Content exchanged in a talk room includes, but is not limited to, text information (text data related to income and expenditure details) entered by a user using his/her own terminal 20, image information including photographs and stamps (for example, photographs of receipts), various file information such as audio files, video files, and data files, and advertising information.

Moreover, the advertisement may refer to the information itself for disseminating information about products or services provided by companies, organizations, individuals, etc., or about themselves, or the medium itself on which the advertisement is posted for disseminating information, or it may not be the same. In this embodiment, the advertisement is information related to the floor of a building that the user is going to visit, and is information that can be displayed on the display unit 24 of the user's terminal 20.
The details will be explained below.

(1) Functional Configuration of User's Terminal The control unit 21 of the terminal 20 includes a message processing unit 211 , a display processing unit 212 , and an elevator instruction unit 213 .

The message processing unit 211 accepts input from the user and/or input of content including a message received by the communication I/F 12 according to a messaging application provided by the messaging service provided by the server 10, and instructs the display processing unit 212 to display it. When input from the user is accepted, it instructs the communication I/F 22 to send the accepted input content to the server 10. Here, the objects processed by the message processing unit 211 are not limited to text messages entered by the user into the talk room, but may also include image information including photos and stamps, audio files, video files, data files, etc.

The display processing unit 212 accepts input from the user and/or input of content including a message received by the communication I/F 12 in accordance with a messaging application provided by the messaging service provided by the server 10, and instructs the display unit 24 to display the input in its display area. When input from the user is accepted, the display processing unit 212 instructs the communication I/F 22 to transmit the accepted input content to the server 10. The display processing unit 212 displays, for example, advertisements provided by the server 10 and related to the destination floor of the user getting on the elevator.

The elevator instruction unit 213 stores in the storage unit 28 an elevator ID, which is identification information of the elevator indicated by the beacon signal received by the communication I/F 22. When the elevator instruction unit 213 receives floor information indicating a floor specified by an input from the user to the input/output unit 23, the elevator instruction unit 213 transmits the floor information and the elevator ID stored in the storage unit 28 as instruction information to the server 10 via the communication I/F 22.
The functional configuration of the terminal 20 has been described above.

(2) Functional Configuration of Server 10 The control unit 11 of the server 10 includes a message processing unit 111 , an instruction unit 112 , and an advertisement processing unit 114 .

The message processing unit 111 has a function of managing talk rooms for communication between users. The message processing unit 111 relays content communication, including content between terminals that receive the messaging service provided by the server 10. In other words, when a user sends content to a talk room, the message processing unit 111 identifies the talk room and transmits the content to other users who belong to the talk room.

When the instruction unit 112 receives instruction information from the terminal 20 via the communication I/F 14, it identifies in which building the elevator ID indicated in the instruction information is installed. Then, it transmits floor information for stopping the elevator at the floor specified in the instruction information to the elevator control device 40 of the identified building via the communication I/F 14.

When the advertising processing unit 114 receives instruction information from the terminal 20 via the communication I/F 14, it identifies in which building the elevator ID indicated in the instruction information is installed. The advertising processing unit 114 then acquires advertising information associated with the floor number of the identified building specified in the instruction information. The advertising information acquired by the advertising processing unit 114 may be stored in the memory unit 15 of the server 10, or may be information present on the network (cloud).

The above is the functional configuration of server 10.

<Data>
Fig. 3 is a conceptual data diagram showing an example of the data configuration of advertisement management information, which is information stored in the storage unit 15 of the server 10. By holding advertisement management information 300 as shown in Fig. 3, the server 10 can identify advertisements to be sent to the user's terminal 20. As shown in Fig. 3, the advertisement management information is information in which a building ID 301, a building name 302, a number of floors 303, an advertisement ID 304, and attribute information 305 are associated with each other.

The building ID 301 is building identification information that can uniquely identify the building in which the elevator is installed. The building ID 301 allows the server 10 to identify which building's elevator the user is in (or about to in).

The building name 302 is information indicating the name of the building indicated by the corresponding building ID 301. Note that the building name 302 does not have to be registered.

The floor number 303 is information indicating one of the floors of the corresponding building, and is information indicating the floor to which the advertisement indicated by the advertisement ID 304 described later pertains.

The advertisement ID 304 is identification information of the advertisement that can uniquely identify the advertisement related to the floor indicated by the floor number 303 of the corresponding building ID 301. Note that the advertisement ID 304 may not be identification information, but may be actual data of the advertisement itself. Also, when the advertisement ID 304 is identification information, the actual data of the corresponding advertisement may be obtained by acquiring data stored in the memory unit 15, or may be obtained by acquiring data stored on the network 30 (on the cloud).

The attribute information 305 is information indicating the characteristics of the advertisement indicated by the corresponding advertisement ID 304. The attribute here may be information indicating the characteristics of the company, organization, or person issuing the advertisement, instead of the characteristics of the advertisement.

Note that the advertisement management information 300 may be associated with other information. For example, information that can identify the company, organization, or person that has issued the advertisement indicated by the advertisement ID 304 may be associated with the advertisement management information 300.

The server 10 can identify the building and floor from the floor number and beacon ID received from the user's terminal 20, and identify the corresponding advertisement.

Figure 4 is a conceptual data diagram showing an example of the data structure of elevator management information stored in the memory unit 15 of the server 10. By storing elevator management information 400, the server 10 can identify in which building the elevator specified by the user's terminal 20 is installed.

Elevator management information 400 is information that associates elevator ID 401 with building ID 402.

Elevator ID 401 is elevator identification information that can uniquely identify each elevator installed in each building.

Building ID 402 is building identification information that can uniquely identify the building in which the elevator indicated by the corresponding elevator ID 401 is installed.

By receiving the elevator ID from the terminal 20, the server 10 can identify in which building the elevator in which the user of the terminal 20 is riding is installed.

<Operation>
Next, a description will be given of the operation of the communication system 1 and each device related to the communication system 1. Fig. 4 is a sequence diagram showing the exchange between each device related to the communication system 1.

As shown in FIG. 5, first, the terminal 20 receives a beacon signal transmitted from the beacon transmitter 414 provided in the elevator in which the user is riding (step S501). The beacon signal includes an elevator ID as identification information that can uniquely identify the beacon transmitter 414 that transmitted the beacon, i.e., the elevator in which the user is standing.

When the terminal 20 receives a beacon signal, it extracts the elevator ID contained in the received beacon signal. The terminal 20 accepts a designation of a floor number as the elevator destination from the user (step S502). The terminal 20 then transmits the extracted elevator ID, the terminal ID of the terminal 20, the accepted floor number, and the user ID of the terminal 20 to the server 10 (step S503).

The server 10 identifies the elevator the user is in and the building in which the elevator is installed based on the elevator ID received from the terminal 20 (step S504). The server 10 transmits the information to the elevator control unit 412 of the elevator control device 40 that controls the identified elevator in the identified building (step S505).

The elevator control unit 412 executes control so that the specified elevator stops at the specified floor (step S506).

While notifying the elevator control unit 412 of the floor number, the server 10 identifies an advertisement corresponding to the specified floor of the identified building. Then, the server 10 transmits the identified advertisement to the terminal 20 (step S507).

The terminal 20 displays the advertisement received from the server 10 on the display unit 24 (step S508). In this way, in the communication system 1, the terminal 20 can display advertisements related to the floor the user is going to. The operation of each device for realizing the exchange shown in FIG. 5 will be described below.

Figure 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the user's terminal 20 to realize the interaction shown in Figure 5.

The communication I/F 22 of the terminal 20 determines whether or not a beacon signal has been received from the beacon transmitter 414 provided in the elevator (step S601). If the communication I/F 22 has received a beacon signal (YES in step S601), the communication I/F 22 transmits the beacon signal to the elevator instruction unit 213 of the control unit 22. The elevator instruction unit 213 extracts the elevator ID included in the beacon signal and stores it in the storage unit 28 (step S602). Note that, although the terminal 20 extracts the elevator ID (beacon ID) included in the beacon signal here, the terminal 20 may be configured to transmit the received beacon signal to the server 10 as is without extracting the elevator ID. If the beacon signal has not been received (NO in step S601), the process proceeds to step S603.

Then, the elevator instruction unit 213 of the terminal 20 determines whether or not a designation of the floor at which the elevator will stop has been received from the user via the input/output unit 23 (step S603). If a designation of the floor has been received (YES in step S603), the elevator instruction unit 213 transmits the received floor, the stored elevator ID, and a user ID that is unique on the communication system 1 and indicates the user holding the terminal 20 to the server 10 via the communication I/F 22 (step S604). If a designation of the floor has not been received (NO in step S603), the process ends.

When the information specifying the floor number is transmitted to the server 10, the communication I/F 22 receives advertising information related to the specified floor number from the server 10 (step S605). The communication I/F 22 transmits the advertising information to the control unit 22. The display processing unit 212 of the control unit 22 causes the received advertising information to be displayed on the display unit 24 (step S606), and ends the process. At this time, the control unit 22 may or may not transmit information indicating that the advertising information has been displayed to the server 10 via the communication I/F 14.
The operation of the terminal 20 has been described above.

Figure 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of server 10 to realize the exchange shown in Figure 5.

As shown in FIG. 7, the communication I/F 14 of the server 10 receives the elevator ID, information indicating the floor, and the user ID from the terminal 20 (step S701). The communication I/F 14 transmits the received elevator ID, information indicating the floor, and user ID to the control unit 11. Note that although it is described here that the elevator ID and information indicating the floor are received together, the elevator ID and information indicating the floor may be received individually as long as it is known which user's terminal 20 sent them (if the user IDs correspond).

The control unit 11 refers to the elevator management information 400 from the received elevator ID to identify the building ID of the building in which the elevator indicated by the elevator ID is installed (step S702).

The instruction unit 113 of the control unit 11 transmits the elevator ID for specifying the elevator and floor information for specifying the floor at which the elevator will stop to the elevator control device 40 that controls the elevator in the building indicated by the identified building ID (step S703).

The advertising processing unit 114 of the control unit 11 also identifies an advertisement corresponding to the specified floor of the identified building by referring to the advertising management information 300 (step S704). At this time, when multiple advertisements are associated as advertisements corresponding to the specified floor of the identified building, the advertising processing unit 114 may identify all of the associated advertisements, or may identify a part of them. When identifying a part of them, it may or may not identify an advertisement that is likely to attract the interest of the user indicated by the user ID received in step S701. An advertisement that is likely to attract the interest of the user may or may not be an advertisement in which some or all of the attributes of the user match the attributes of the advertisement, as an example and not a limitation. The server 10 may hold user attribute information indicating the characteristics of the user as part of the service provided by the server 10, and the advertising processing unit 114 may or may not identify an advertisement in which some or all of the user attribute information matches the attribute information indicated in the attribute information 305 of the advertising management information 300. The user attribute information may include information on stores or places that the user has visited in the past, and in that case, the advertisement processing unit 114 may or may not specify advertisements related to the stores or places that the user has visited in the past. The user attribute information may include information on products or services that the user has purchased in the past, and in that case, the advertisement processing unit 114 may or may not specify advertisements similar to the products or services that the user has purchased in the past. Conversely, the advertisement processing unit 114 may or may not specify advertisements in which the user has never been interested, that is, advertisements having attributes that do not match the user attribute information. The advertisement processing unit 114 may or may not specify advertisements regardless of the user attribute information. As a non-limiting example, the advertisement processing unit 114 may or may not obtain the floor at which the elevator indicated by the elevator ID received in step S701 is to stop from the elevator control device 40 of the corresponding building, and may or may not specify an advertisement corresponding to the obtained floor at which the elevator is to stop.

The advertising processing unit 114 transmits the identified advertisement to the terminal 20 of the user indicated by the user ID via the communication I/F 14 (step S705), and ends the process.

Note that in FIG. 7, the processing order of step S703 and steps S704 and S705 may be reversed. In other words, steps S702 to S705 shown in FIG. 7 may be executed in the order of S704, S705, and S703.

Figure 8 is a flowchart showing the operation of the elevator control device 40 to realize the interaction shown in Figure 5.

The communication I/F 411 of the elevator control device 40 receives the elevator ID and floor information from the server 10 (step S801). The communication I/F 411 transmits the received elevator ID and floor information to the elevator control unit 412.

The elevator control unit 412 identifies the elevator corresponding to the received elevator ID. Then, it controls the elevator driving unit 413 so that the identified elevator stops at the floor specified by the floor information. The elevator driving unit 413 drives the elevator so that it stops at the floor specified by the elevator control unit 412 (step S802).

Note that if there is only one elevator corresponding to the elevator control device 40, the elevator ID is not required.

<First Modification of First Embodiment>
In the above embodiment 1, an example is described in which the destination floor of the elevator is specified from the terminal 20, but the elevator can also accept the specification of the destination floor using a hard key provided on the elevator. Although not shown in Fig. 8, the elevator control device 40 may accept the specification of the floor by the user's operation on a hard key (which may be a soft key realized by a touch panel or the like) provided on the elevator for specifying the floor. In this case, the elevator control unit 412 accepts information on the floor indicated by the pressed hard key, and controls the elevator driving unit 413 so that the elevator corresponding to the accepted information stops.

Specifically, each device related to the communication system 1 executes processing as shown in the sequence diagram in FIG. 9. As shown in FIG. 9, the elevator 41 receives a designation of the floor to stop at from the user appearing via the attached hard key (step S901). The elevator 41 transmits information indicating the received floor number together with the elevator ID to the elevator control device 40 and the server 10 (step S902).

When the information indicating the floor number is received, the elevator control unit 412 of the elevator control device 40 controls the elevator driving unit 413 so that the elevator 41 stops at the specified floor (step S903).

Meanwhile, the terminal 20 periodically transmits its location information to the server 10 (step S904).

When the server 10 receives the location information from the terminal 20, the server 10 stores the location information in the memory unit 15 in association with the user ID of the terminal 20 (step S905).

When the server 10 receives information indicating the floor number from the elevator 41, the server 10 identifies the corresponding building (step S906). The server 10 also identifies the user in the corresponding elevator based on the location information received from the terminal 20 and the location of the elevator 41 (step S907). Note that the identification of the terminal 20 in the elevator may or may not be achieved by matching the beacon signal as described above. The server 10 then identifies an advertisement for the specified floor of the identified building and transmits it to the terminal 20 in the elevator (step S908).

When the terminal 20 receives the advertisement from the server 10, it displays the received advertisement (step S909). In this way, an advertisement related to a floor can be displayed on the terminal 20 by specifying a floor using a hard key provided on the elevator 41, instead of specifying a floor number from the terminal 20.

In FIG. 9, the elevator 41 is configured to transmit floor information directly to the server 10, but this may or may not be the case where the elevator control device 40 receives the information from the elevator 41 and transfers it to the server 10. This embodiment 1, variant 1 differs from the above embodiment 1 in that the floor number to which the elevator will travel is specified from the terminal 20, or the floor number is specified from the elevator itself. In this case, in embodiment 1, the terminal 20 receives and displays advertising information for the floor number specified by the terminal, whereas in embodiment 1, variant 1, advertising information for all floors to which the elevator will travel is transmitted to and displayed by all terminals 20 present in the elevator.

The server 10 may transmit all advertising information for each floor identified when the floor number is specified by the elevator input key to the terminal 20 of the user in the elevator, or may transmit the information after filtering according to a predetermined condition. The predetermined condition may be any condition that allows for narrowing down the information that can be estimated to be suitable for the user of each terminal 20. As a non-limiting example, the information may be narrowed down based on the attributes of the user (age, sex, preferences), or if this is not the user's first visit to the building, the advertising information may be narrowed down to floors that the user has previously visited. As a non-limiting example, if the user is a man, advertising information for floors selling women's products may or may not be transmitted.

<Modification 2 of First Embodiment>
In the above-mentioned embodiment 1, an example is shown in which the server 10 transmits advertisement information for a floor specified by the user's terminal 20 to the terminal 20, and in the above-mentioned modification 1 of embodiment 1, an example is shown in which advertisement information for a floor specified by an input key provided in the elevator is transmitted to the terminal 20 in the elevator. In the above-mentioned modification 2 of embodiment 1, an example is described in which the server 10 transmits to the terminal 20 advertisement information for a floor specified by a terminal different from the terminal 20 and present in the same elevator, rather than advertisement information for a floor specified by the terminal 20 (advertisement information specified by the terminal 20 may also be transmitted).

Figure 10 is a sequence diagram showing an example of interactions between devices according to Variation 2 of Embodiment 1.

As shown in FIG. 10, the beacon transmitter 414 transmits a beacon signal toward the terminals present in the elevator (step S1001). Here, it is assumed that terminals 20a and 20b are present in the elevator.

The terminal 20a receives the beacon signal. Then, the terminal 20a accepts from the user a designation of the floor number that is the destination of the elevator (step S1002). The terminal 20a then transmits the elevator ID and floor information of the received beacon signal, as well as the user ID, to the server 10 (step 1003).

Similarly, terminal 20b receives a beacon signal. Terminal 20b then accepts from the user a designation of the floor number to which the elevator should go (step S1004). Terminal 20b then transmits the elevator ID and floor number information of the received beacon signal, as well as the user ID, to server 10 (step 1005).

Based on the information received from each of terminals 20a and 20b, server 10 determines that both are riding in the same elevator (step S1006), and instructs elevator control unit 512 to stop the identified elevator at the floor specified by terminal 20a and the floor specified by terminal 20b (step S1007).

Then, the server 10 transmits the advertising information of the floor specified by the terminal 20a and the advertising information of the floor specified by the terminal 20b to each of the terminals 20a and 20b (step S1008). Each of the terminals 20a and 20b displays the received advertising information. In the sequence diagram shown in FIG. 10, the server 10 transmits the advertising information of the floors specified by the terminals 20a and 20b together, but it is also possible that the user B of the terminal 20b boards the elevator first, and then the user A of the terminal 20a boards the same elevator later. In this case, the server 10 transmits to the terminal 20a the advertising information of the floor specified by the terminal 20a, as well as the advertising information of the floor specified by the other terminal 20b in the same elevator. On the other hand, when the advertising information of the floor specified by the terminal 20b has already been transmitted to the terminal 20b that has already boarded, the server 10 may be configured to transmit only the advertising information of the floor specified by the terminal 20a, or may not be configured to do so.

<Modification 3 of First Embodiment>
In the exchanges shown in Figs. 5, 9, and 10, it is assumed that there is (is associated with) advertising information for the floor where the user plans to stop, but there may be cases where there is no advertising information. The processing of the server 10 in such a case will be described with reference to Fig. 11. Fig. 11 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the server 10. The flowchart shown in Fig. 11 differs from the flowchart shown in Fig. 7 in that the processing of step S1101 is inserted before step S704 and that the processing of step S1102 is executed, but the other processing is common. Therefore, the processing of steps S1101 and S1102 will be described here, and the other processing will be omitted.

In step S1101, the advertising processing unit 114 determines whether the advertising information is associated with the floor indicated by the floor information of the identified building (step S1101). If it is associated (YES in step S1101), the process proceeds to step S704.

If the advertising information is not associated with the floor indicated by the floor information of the identified building (NO in step S1101), the advertising processing unit 114 identifies advertising information for a floor other than the floor indicated by the floor information of the identified building. Here, the advertising information for the different floor may be advertising information for another floor that matches the user's attribute information, as described above, or may not be advertising information for another floor. Also, the advertising information for the different floor may be advertising information associated with another floor where the elevator the user is riding in stops, or may not be advertising information for another floor. Also, it is preferable that the advertising processing unit 114 identifies advertising information related to the building in which the elevator the user is riding is installed and transmits it to the user's terminal 20, but it may also be configured to identify advertising information that is not related to the building in which the elevator the user is riding is installed.

In this way, the advertising processing unit 114 may or may not identify advertising information different from the advertising information associated with the floor specified by the user, that is, advertising information for a floor different from the floor specified by the user.

Effects of First Embodiment
As shown in the above-mentioned embodiment 1, the destination floor of the elevator is specified from the terminal 20. The server 10 transmits the floor received from the terminal 20 to a control unit that controls the elevator. Meanwhile, the server 10 identifies an advertisement related to the destination floor specified by the user of the terminal 20 and transmits it to the terminal 20. Then, the terminal 20 displays the received advertisement.
This allows the user to obtain information in advance about products, services, events, etc. being sold at the place he or she is about to visit, so the user can narrow down the purpose of the destination floor or find a new purpose. Also, the side issuing advertisements can improve the possibility of attracting the user's interest in the products and services being sold.

In addition, the terminal 20 may display a UI for specifying a destination floor, as shown in FIG. 2( a), and the terminal 20 may transmit information about the floor specified by the user to the server 10.
This allows the user to specify the elevator destination.

Furthermore, the server 10 may transmit other advertising information when there is no advertising information corresponding to the floor number indicating the user's destination notified from the terminal 20. Then, the terminal 20 may display that advertising information.
This allows the terminal 20 to present the advertisement in a situation where the user is highly likely to see the advertisement, without missing an opportunity to advertise.

Furthermore, the terminal 20 receives a beacon signal transmitted from a beacon transmitting unit 414 provided for each elevator, and transmits an elevator ID determined by the beacon signal to the server 10. The server 10 identifies which elevator of which building the user is riding in, based on the received elevator ID.
This allows the terminal 20 to notify the server 10 of which elevator the user is in, without receiving input of information about the building or elevator from the user. The server 10 also holds elevator management information 400 that associates elevator IDs with building IDs, and can therefore identify the building and elevator in which the user is located.

<Embodiment 2>
In the communication system 1, when a user purchases a product or service based on the advertisement information transmitted from the server 10 to the terminal 20, some kind of special offer information may be transmitted to the user. The special offer information may be anything that is beneficial to the user, and may be, for example and without limitation, a discount coupon that can be used at the store where the product or service was purchased, a voucher that can be exchanged for some product or service, points that can be used to assist in the purchase of a product or service, points that can be used to use other services or purchase products in the communication system 1 regardless of the store where the product or service was purchased, or electronic money. Note that the example of special offer information shown here is merely an example, and other forms of information may be used.

Figure 12 is a conceptual data diagram showing an example of the data structure of advertising bonus information that is stored by or accessible to server 10 to realize this embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 12, advertising bonus information 1200 is information in which an advertising ID 1201 and a bonus ID 1202 are associated with each other.

The advertisement ID 1201 is advertisement identification information for uniquely identifying an advertisement managed by the server 10 from other advertisements. The advertisement ID can also be replaced by a product ID, which is information indicating a product.

The bonus ID 1202 is identification information that can uniquely identify a bonus that is sent when a user purchases a product indicated by the corresponding advertisement ID 1201 and a related advertisement is sent to the user's terminal 20 before the user purchases the product. The content of the bonus may be such that the same bonus is associated with different products or services. In addition, although the embodiment shows an aspect in which identification information that identifies the bonus information is associated, the bonus information itself may also be associated.

By storing the advertising bonus information, the server 10 can identify the bonus information to send to the user's terminal 20 from the advertising ID.

Figure 13 is a diagram showing an embodiment after the terminal 20 displays an advertisement transmitted from the server 10, and is a sequence diagram showing the exchange between the terminal 20 and the server 10. In other words, Figure 13 shows the processing after the sequence shown in Figure 4 and Figure 9.

The terminal 20 displays the received advertisement (steps S407, S909). If the user of the terminal 20 is interested in the displayed advertisement, the user purchases a product related to the advertisement (step S1301). The purchase of the product may be, but is not limited to, realized by the user getting off the elevator at the floor corresponding to the displayed advertisement and actually purchasing the product at the store, or it may not be realized in this way. The purchase of the product may be, but is not limited to, realized by the user purchasing the product at an EC site to which the user is transferred by touching the displayed advertisement, or it may not be realized in this way.

The terminal 20 transmits purchase information on the purchased product to the server 10 (step S1302). The terminal 20 may or may not manually accept information on the purchased product from the user as the purchase information. The terminal 20 may or may not accept a photograph of the product purchased by the user as the purchase information. The terminal 20 may or may not accept a photograph of the receipt or invoice received when the user purchased the product as the purchase information. If the product was purchased via an EC site, the terminal 20 may or may not accept purchase history information as the purchase information. If the communication system 1 is configured so that the EC site and the server 10 are linked to each other, the purchase information may or may not be transmitted from the EC site to the server 10, not from the terminal 20.

When the server 10 receives the purchase information from the terminal 20, the server 10 identifies the bonus information for the product indicated in the purchase information (step S1303). The server 10 then transmits the identified bonus information to the terminal 20 that transmitted the purchase information (step S1304).

The terminal 20 displays the received bonus information (step S1305). In this manner, the terminal 20 can display bonus information associated with the purchase of a product related to the advertisement indicated in the advertising information received from the server 10.

The operations of the terminal 20 and the server 10 to realize the exchange shown in FIG. 13 will be explained using the flowcharts shown in FIG. 14 and FIG. 15.

Figure 14 is a flowchart showing the operation of the terminal 20 for realizing the exchange shown in Figure 13. As shown in Figure 14, the terminal 20 judges whether or not the purchase information of a product (or service) has been accepted (step S1401). If the purchase information of the product has been accepted (YES in step S1401), the control unit 21 of the terminal 20 transmits the purchase information of the product together with the user ID of the terminal 20 to the server 10 via the communication I/F 22 (step S1402). At this time, advertising information of the purchased product that has already been received from the server 10, or identification information of advertising information that can identify the advertising information, may or may not be transmitted to the server 10 together with the purchase information of the product.

If product purchase information has not been received (NO in step S1401), the control unit 21 of the terminal 20 determines whether or not bonus information has been received from the server 10 via the communication I/F 22 (step S1403). If bonus information has been received (YES in step S1403), the display processing unit 212 of the control unit 21 causes the display unit 24 to display the received bonus information (step S1404) and ends the process. If bonus information has not been received (NO in step S1403), the process also ends.

As a non-limiting example, FIG. 15 shows an example of a screen image displayed on the display unit 24 of the terminal 20. FIG. 15(a) shows an example of the terminal 20 displaying advertisement information 1501 on the display unit 24. This is a screen image showing an example of advertisement information 1501 displayed on the display unit 24 of the terminal 20 when the user uses the terminal 20 to specify the 6th floor as the destination. The user who has seen this advertisement purchases a product related to the advertisement information 1501. Then, the user uses his/her terminal 20 to transmit purchase information indicating the purchase of the product to the server 10. The server 10 then transmits bonus information corresponding to the purchase information to the terminal 20, and the terminal 20 displays bonus information 1502 associated with the purchase of the product related to the advertisement information transmitted by the server 10, as shown in FIG. 15(b). This allows the user of the terminal 20 to recognize that he/she can receive a bonus.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing the operation of the server 10 for realizing the exchange shown in FIG. 13. As shown in FIG. 16, the communication I/F 14 of the server 10 receives the purchase information (step S1601). The purchase information may be sent from the terminal 20, from the EC site, or from a store register or the like if the register has a communication function. The purchase information includes at least information that can identify the purchased product and information that can identify the user who purchased the product. When the communication I/F 14 receives the purchase information, it transmits it to the control unit 11.

The control unit 11 determines whether or not advertising information has been sent to the terminal 20 that sent the purchase information (step S1602). That is, when the control unit 11 receives the purchase information, it determines from the operation log whether an advertisement for the corresponding product has been sent to the terminal 20 of the user indicated by the user ID, based on the information on the purchased product included in the purchase information and the user ID. If an advertisement has not been sent (NO in step S1602), the process ends.

If related advertising information has been sent to the terminal 20 that sent the purchase information (YES in step S1602), the control unit 11 identifies the bonus information corresponding to the product indicated in the purchase information (step S1603).

The control unit 11 identifies the user who purchased the product indicated in the purchase information (step S1604). That is, the control unit 11 extracts the user ID included in the purchase information. The control unit 11 then transmits the identified bonus information to the terminal 20 of the identified user via the communication I/F 14 (step S1605).

In addition, as an additional condition in the determination in step S1602, the control unit 11 may or may not determine whether related advertising information has been transmitted within a predetermined time going back from the time when the purchase information was received (or transmitted by the terminal 20).

Figure 17 shows an example in which, during the exchange between the devices in the sequence diagram shown in Figure 13, the purchase information is sent to the server 10 not by the terminal 20 but by a cash register installed at the location where the user purchased the product. In Figure 17, the processing up to step S901 is similar to the processing shown in Figures 9 and 13, so a description thereof will be omitted.

As shown in FIG. 17, when purchasing a product, the terminal 20 transmits user information indicating the user ID to the register 50 (step S1702).

When the register 50 receives the user information, it associates the received user ID with the purchase information regarding the product purchased by the user and transmits the associated information to the server 10 (step S1703).

The server 10 identifies the bonus information for the product corresponding to the purchase information received from the register 50 (step S1704). The server 10 then transmits the identified bonus information to the terminal 20 of the user identified by the user ID received from the register 50 (step S1705).

The terminal 20 displays the bonus information received from the server 10 (step S1305).

Although not described in detail here, the register 50 may be any register capable of communicating with the terminal 20 and the server 10, and may have the same configuration as a normal register, except that it includes a communication unit that communicates with the terminal 20 and the server 10, and a control unit that, when receiving purchase information from the terminal 20, transmits the purchase information and a user ID indicating the user of the terminal 20 to the server 10. As the process of the terminal 20 is the same except for transmitting user information to the register 50, a detailed explanation of the operation using a flowchart will be omitted. Similarly, as the only difference with the server 10 is whether it is the terminal 20 or the register 50 that transmits the purchase information, a description using a flowchart will be omitted.

Figure 18 is a sequence diagram showing an example of transmitting, instead of the bonus information in the sequence diagram shown in Figure 13, other advertising information related to the purchased product. As shown in Figure 18, the server 10 may or may not be configured to transmit advertising information related to the purchased product, rather than bonus information, that is different from the advertising information already transmitted. Below, the exchange between the devices related to the communication system 1 will be described using the sequence diagram shown in Figure 18.

In the sequence diagram shown in Figure 18, the processing up to step S1302 shown in Figure 13 is the same, so the explanation will be omitted.

When the server 10 receives the purchase information from the terminal 20, it identifies other advertising information associated with the product corresponding to the purchase information (step S1803). The other advertising information here refers to advertising information different from the advertising information identified in step S507. The server 10 transmits the different advertising information related to the identified product to the terminal 20 (step S1804).

The terminal 20 displays the different advertising information received (step S1805).

Note that the mode of transmitting different advertising information shown in FIG. 18 may be executed instead of transmitting the bonus information shown in FIG. 17, or both processes may be executed.

Figure 19 is a diagram showing an example of a display on terminal 20 when the exchange shown in Figure 18 is executed. Figure 19 (a) is a diagram showing an example of a display in which advertising information 1901 relating to a floor specified by the user is displayed. In contrast, Figure 19 (b) shows an example in which, when a user views advertising information relating to a floor specified by the user and purchases a product related to the advertising information, another piece of advertising information 1902 relating to that product is further displayed. In this way, terminal 20 can also display further advertising information.

<Effects of the Second Embodiment>
As shown in the above-mentioned second embodiment, the user transmits to the server 10, using the terminal 20, purchase information indicating the purchase of a product or service related to the advertising information received from the server 10. The server 10 determines whether or not the product indicated in the received purchase information is a product related to the advertising information previously transmitted to the terminal 20, and if it is a related product, transmits some kind of bonus information to the terminal 20. The terminal 20 then displays the received bonus information.
This enables the terminal 20 to increase the user's willingness to purchase products or services related to the advertising information displayed by the terminal 20.

Furthermore, upon receiving the purchase information from the terminal 20, the server 10 may further transmit advertising information to the terminal 20, and the terminal 20 may display the new advertising information received.
This allows the terminal 20 to encourage the user to make further purchases.

<Embodiment 3>
In the above-mentioned first and second embodiments, the processing was described assuming that the user is in an elevator. In the present embodiment 3, the processing will be described in the case where the user specifies the destination before getting in the elevator. In such a case, in the communication system 1, the server 10 issues an instruction to the elevator and specifies which elevator the user of the terminal 20 will board.

The sequence diagram in Figure 20 shows an example in which a user operates the elevator destination before boarding the elevator.

As shown in FIG. 20, the terminal 20 accepts a designation from a user and transmits to the server 10 building information indicating the building the user plans to visit, the floor the user plans to visit, and the location information of the terminal (step S2001). At this time, the terminal 20 transmits the information together with a user ID indicating the user of the terminal 20.

The server 10 identifies the building that the user is going to visit based on the building information from the received information (step S2002). Here, the purpose of identifying the building is to identify its actual location and to identify the advertisement to be sent to the user's terminal 20.

The server 10 identifies the building and uses the number of floors specified by the user and the advertisement management information 300 to identify the advertisement to be sent to the terminal 20 (step S2003).

The terminal 20 periodically transmits location information indicating its own location (step S2004).

The server 10 confirms that the location information received from the terminal 20 is within a specified range from the location of the identified building (step S2005). The server 10 then transmits the floor number to the elevator control unit of the identified building (step S2006). At this time, the server 10 may specify which elevator, or, if no elevator is specified (not shown), may receive an elevator ID indicating the elevator to be controlled from the elevator control unit 412 as information indicating which elevator to operate. The elevator control unit 412 controls the elevator so that the specified elevator stops at the specified floor (step S2007).

The server 10 transmits advertising information for the specified floor of the identified building to the terminal 20 together with information about the elevator the user plans to board (step S2008).

The terminal 20 displays information about the elevator the user plans to board, as well as advertising information (step S2009). Note that the elevator information is displayed before boarding the elevator, but the advertising information may be displayed before or after boarding the elevator. Note that the processes of steps S2004 and S2005 are not essential processes, and the process of FIG. 20 may be executed when the elevator floor number is specified from the terminal 20, regardless of the location of the user's terminal 20. Alternatively, if the location information received in step S2001 is a predetermined distance or more away from the location of the elevator to be controlled, the process of steps S2004 and S2005 may be executed before executing the processes of step S2006 and subsequent steps.

Figure 21 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of terminal 20 to realize the exchange shown in Figure 20.

As shown in FIG. 21, the terminal 20 accepts input of building information to be visited from the user via the input/output unit 23 (step S2101). It also accepts a designation of the floor number indicating which floor of the building the user intends to visit (step S2102). The input/output unit 23 transmits the accepted input contents to the control unit 21.

The location information acquisition unit 25 of the terminal 20 acquires longitude and latitude information indicating the current location of the terminal 20 and transmits it to the control unit 21 (step S2103).

The control unit 21 (elevator instruction unit 213) of the terminal 20 transmits the received building information and floor number, the acquired location information, and a user ID indicating the user of the terminal 20 to the server 10 via the communication I/F 22 (step S2104).

The control unit 21 determines whether or not the advertising information and elevator information have been received from the server 10 (step S2105). If the advertising information and elevator information have not been received (NO in step S2105), the control unit 21 transmits new location information acquired again by the location information acquisition unit 25 to the server 10 via the communication I/F 22 (step S2106), and the process returns to step S2105.

If the advertisement information and elevator information have been received (YES in step S2105), information indicating the elevator to be boarded and the advertisement are displayed on the display unit 24 (step S2107), and the process ends. As described above, the advertisement may be displayed after the user has boarded the elevator. As a non-limiting example, whether the user has boarded the elevator can be detected by receiving a beacon signal transmitted from a beacon transmitting unit 414 provided in the elevator.

Figure 22 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the server 10 for realizing the exchange shown in Figure 20.

As shown in FIG. 22, the communication I/F 14 of the server 10 receives from the terminal 20 building information indicating the building the user plans to visit, the first planned floor of the building to be visited, the user ID, and location information (step S2201). The communication I/F 14 transmits each piece of received information to the control unit 11. The control unit 11 identifies the building the user plans to visit based on the building information.

The control unit 11 of the server 10 determines whether the location information of the user's terminal 20 is within a predetermined distance from the elevator of the building indicated in the building information (step S2202). The control unit 11 performs this determination based on the location information transmitted from the terminal 20 and the location of the building identified based on the building information. If the terminal 20 is not within the predetermined distance (NO in step S2202), new location information is received from the terminal 20 (step S2203) and the process returns to step S2202.

When the control unit 11 determines that the terminal 20 is within a predetermined distance from the elevator (YES in step S2202), it transmits information on the specified floor number to the elevator control unit 412 of the identified building via the communication I/F 14 (step S2204). At this time, the control unit 11 may or may not transmit the information together with the elevator ID that specifies the elevator the user will board.

The advertising processing unit 114 of the control unit 11 identifies the advertisement corresponding to the floor number transmitted from the terminal 20 using the advertising management information 300 (step S2205).

Then, the advertisement processing unit 114 transmits the identified advertisement to the user's terminal 20 together with information indicating the elevator the user will board (step S2206), and ends the process. The information indicating the elevator may use an elevator ID specified by the server 10, or, although not shown in FIG. 22, may use an elevator ID received from the elevator control unit 412 after the server 10 specifies the floor number.

Note that in FIG. 22, the processing of step S2205 may or may not be performed after step S2201, before step S2202, or before step S2204.

Figure 23 shows an example of elevator information displayed on the display unit 24 of the terminal 20.

As shown in FIG. 23, the display unit 24 of the terminal 20 may display information specifying which elevator the user should board when there are multiple elevators in the building the user is visiting. In the example shown in FIG. 23, the terminal 20 shows an example of indicating which elevator the user should board by illustrating it. FIG. 23(a) shows an example of indicating the elevator the user should board by illustrating it. Note that in the example shown in FIG. 23(a), the arrow 2300 indicates the elevator the user should board, but this is not limited to this, and as an example and not a limitation, it may be realized in a form in which the elevator is displayed in a manner that makes it distinguishable from other elevators by color coding. Alternatively, the elevators may be assigned numbers so that the user can know the numbers, and as shown in FIG. 23(b), a notification such as "Please board elevator number 3" may or may not be given. As another example and not a limitation, when there are three elevators, a notification such as "Please board the rightmost elevator" may or may not be given by text. This does not have to be a visual notification, but can also be an audio notification.

However, in such a case, the user may make a mistake in choosing the elevator to board. Here we explain an example of control that allows the user to go to the desired floor even in such a case.

The sequence diagram in Figure 24 shows an example of the interactions between the devices when a user makes a mistake with the elevator they are supposed to board.

As shown in FIG. 24, the user's terminal 20 displays information about the elevator to be boarded and advertising information (step S2009). However, suppose that the user now boards a different elevator than the one displayed.

The beacon transmitter 414 installed in the elevator in which the user is boarding periodically transmits a beacon signal (step S2401).

When the user's terminal 20 receives a beacon signal transmitted from the beacon transmitter 414 installed in the elevator, it transmits the elevator ID contained in the beacon signal and the user ID indicating the user of the terminal 20 to the server 10 (step S2402).

The server 10 checks whether the elevator ID received from the terminal 20 is the elevator that the user's terminal 20 was instructed to board (step S2403). Here, it is assumed that the server 10 has confirmed that the user boarded a different elevator.

The server 10 then transmits information about the floor number specified by the user of the terminal 20 to the elevator control unit 412 that corresponds to the elevator the user is in (step S2404).

In response, the elevator control unit 412 controls the elevator to stop at the received floor number (step S2405).

The server 10 may or may not send an instruction to the elevator control unit 412 corresponding to the elevator that the user was originally scheduled to board to cancel the instruction to stop at the floor that was specified for the elevator that the user was originally scheduled to board.

Also, in step S2404, if the server 10 recognizes that the elevator specified by the server 10 has already been determined to stop at that floor (having acquired information on the stopping floor from the elevator control unit 412), the server 10 may not issue an instruction to the elevator control unit 412.

Note that, although an example has been given here of controlling the elevator when the user has boarded the wrong elevator, this may or may not be achieved by the server 10 merely notifying the user's terminal 20 of information indicating that the user is boarding a different elevator.

Figure 25 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the server 10 for realizing the exchange shown in Figure 24. Note that the process shown in Figure 25 shows the process executed after information about the elevator the user will board is transmitted to the terminal 20 and the floor number is specified for the elevator. Also, the operation of the terminal 20 is omitted here, as it simply receives a beacon signal and transmits the elevator ID indicated by the beacon signal to the server 10.

As shown in FIG. 25, the control unit 11 of the server 10 determines whether or not a signal including an elevator ID and a user ID is received from the terminal 20 via the communication I/F 14 (step S2501). If the elevator ID is not received from the terminal 20 (NO in step S2502), the control unit 11 waits.

If an elevator ID has been received from the terminal 20 (YES in step S2501), it is determined whether the received elevator ID is the elevator for which the terminal 20 was instructed to board in step S2008 in FIG. 20, i.e., whether it matches the elevator ID of the elevator for which the terminal 20 was instructed to board (step S2502). If they match (YES in step S2502), the process ends.

On the other hand, if the received elevator ID does not match the elevator ID of the elevator that the user was instructed to board (NO in step S2502), the instruction unit 113 of the server 10 transmits floor information indicating the number of times specified by the terminal user to the elevator control unit 412 that controls the elevator indicated by the elevator ID received in step S2501 via the communication I/F 14 (step S2503), and ends the process.

In this way, in communication system 1, even if the user boards the wrong elevator, the elevator can be controlled to stop at the destination the user wants to go to.

<Effects of the Third Embodiment>
As shown in the above-mentioned third embodiment, when the user specifies the floor at which the elevator should stop while not boarding the elevator, the server 10 transmits information specifying the elevator the user will board to the terminal 20. Then, the terminal 20 displays information indicating the elevator the user will board.
This allows the user to specify the floor he or she wishes to go to from outside the elevator, and to board the elevator that stops at that floor.

Furthermore, the terminal 20 receives a beacon signal transmitted from a beacon transmitter 414 mounted on the elevator in which the user is riding, and transmits the elevator ID contained in the beacon signal to the server 10. The server 10 can confirm whether the user is riding in the elevator specified by the user by checking the received elevator ID. If it is confirmed that the user is riding in the wrong elevator, the server 10 instructs the elevator in which the user is currently riding to stop at the floor at which the user wants to stop.
This allows the user to reach the desired floor even if the user boards the wrong elevator.

<Modification 1>
The sequence diagram shown in FIG. 26 illustrates an exchange that occurs when a user who has viewed advertising information displayed on terminal 20 becomes interested in the content of the advertising information performs a touch operation on the advertising information.

The server 10 transmits the advertising information to the terminal 20, and the terminal 20 displays the received advertising information.

In response to this, the terminal 20 accepts input from the user regarding the displayed advertisement information (step S2601). Here, the input regarding the displayed advertisement information may be, but is not limited to, a touch input regarding the advertisement information, as an example. When there is an input regarding the displayed advertisement, the terminal 20 transmits an advertisement ID indicating the advertisement information that is the subject of the input to the server 10 (step S2602).

When the server 10 receives the advertisement ID, it identifies the floor of the building that corresponds to the advertisement ID by referring to the advertisement management information 300 (step S2603). The instruction unit 113 then transmits floor information indicating the identified floor to the elevator control unit 412 of the elevator in which the user is riding via the communication I/F 14 (step S2604).

The elevator control unit 412 executes control so that the elevator corresponding to the floor indicated in the received floor information stops (step S2605).

Figure 27 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of terminal 20 to realize the exchange shown in Figure 26.

The display processing unit 212 of the terminal 20 displays the advertisement indicated by the advertising information received from the server 10 on the display unit 24 (step S2701).

When a user who has seen a displayed advertisement becomes interested in a product or service shown in the advertisement, the user performs, for example, a touch input on the displayed advertisement. The input/output unit 23 transmits the input received from the user to the control unit 21 (step S2702).

The control unit 21 determines which advertising information the user has input based on the input position on the input/output unit 23 and the position of the image displayed by the display processing unit 212 (step S2703).

The control unit 21 transmits the advertising ID of the identified advertising information to the server 10 via the communication I/F 22 (step S2704).

Although not shown in FIG. 27, in response to a touch input from a user on an advertisement, terminal 20 may or may not guide the user to the homepage of the company issuing the advertisement, or obtain and display further detailed advertisement information from server 10. Also, in response to a touch input on an advertisement, terminal 20 may or may not display bonus information related to the touched advertisement, such as, by way of example and not limitation, coupon information for a discount when purchasing that product or service.

Figure 28 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the server 10 for realizing the exchange shown in Figure 26.

As shown in FIG. 28, the communication I/F 14 of the server 10 receives the advertisement ID from the terminal 20 (step S2801). The communication I/F 14 transmits the received advertisement ID to the control unit 11.

When the control unit 11 receives the advertisement ID from the terminal 20, it refers to the advertisement management information 300 to identify which floor in the building the advertisement is for. In other words, it identifies the number of times the advertisement ID corresponds (step S2802).

Then, the instruction unit 113 transmits floor information indicating the identified floor to the elevator control unit 412 that controls the elevator the user is in via the communication I/F 14 (step S2803). This makes it possible to guide the user to a floor where they can purchase products, services, etc. that interest them.

Figure 29 is an example of a screen diagram displayed in the display area of the display unit 24 of the terminal 20. Figure 29 (a) is a diagram showing a state in which a user becomes interested in the displayed advertisement information 2900 and touches it. Then, as shown in Figure 29 (b), the terminal 20 may display a UI 2910 that inquires whether to go to the floor corresponding to the advertisement information. The UI 2910 may include a button 2911 for affirming the content of the inquiry and a button 2912 for denying it. This process may or may not be executed between steps S2602 and S2603. Here, it shows a state in which the user decides to go to the floor where the product related to the advertisement is sold and touches the button 2911. Then, as shown in Figure 29 (c), the terminal 20 may display (see UI 2920) that the user will go to the floor related to the advertisement and that the original destination will be canceled. FIG. 29 shows an example of displaying a UI that asks whether to go to the floor corresponding to the advertisement, but this is not limited thereto. Detailed advertisements for products or services corresponding to the advertisement may be displayed, or the website of a business that provides the products or services corresponding to the advertisement may be accessed. FIG. 29(c) shows that the designation of the floor originally designated as the destination is canceled, but the server 10 does not have to cancel this designation. The server 10 may or may not control not to cancel the designation even if the user gets off at a floor other than the floor designated by the user of the terminal 20 if another user has designated the floor designated as the destination by the user, or if another user is viewing an advertisement for the floor designated by the user.

<Effects of Modification 1>
As shown in the above-mentioned modified example 1, when the terminal 20 detects an input for the displayed advertisement information, it transmits information about the advertisement to the server 10. The server 10 then assumes that the user is interested in the product or service related to the advertisement, and issues an instruction to the elevator control unit 412 to make the elevator stop at the floor corresponding to the advertisement.
This makes it possible to guide the user to a floor that has products or services that are presumed to be of interest to the user at present, without receiving any further input from the user, such as specifying a floor.

Furthermore, the terminal 20 may display coupon information related to the advertisement touched by the user.
This can increase the user's desire to purchase products and services that may be of interest to the user.

<Modification 2>
In this second modification, an example of an exchange is shown in which advertising information unrelated to the floor specified by the user of the terminal 20 is transmitted to the terminal 20. That is, an example is described in which the user gets into an elevator, and the user's terminal 20 displays advertising information corresponding to the moving direction (upward, downward) of the elevator the user is in. Fig. 30 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the server 10 for realizing such control.

As shown in FIG. 30, the control unit 11 of the server 10 obtains information about the floor where the elevator is currently located from the elevator control unit 412 (step S3001).

The control unit 11 also acquires information on the direction of travel (direction of movement) of the elevator. Then, it determines whether the direction of travel of the elevator is an upward direction (step S3002). Note that this determination may also be a determination of whether the direction of travel of the elevator is a downward direction, in which case, if the direction of travel of the elevator is a downward direction, the processing of step 3005 shown below is executed, and if the direction of travel of the elevator is not a downward direction, the processing of step S3003 is executed.

If the elevator is moving upward (YES in step S3002), the advertising processing unit 114 identifies from the advertising management information 300 an advertisement for a floor above the current floor number obtained in step S3001 (step S3003). On the other hand, if the elevator is not moving upward, i.e., if it is moving downward (NO in step S3002), the advertising processing unit 114 identifies from the advertising management information an advertisement for a floor below the current floor number obtained in step S3001 (step S3005).

Then, the advertising processing unit 114 transmits the identified advertisement to the terminal 20 in the elevator via the communication I/F 14 (step S3004), and ends the processing.

In the example shown in FIG. 30, an example is shown in which an advertisement for a floor in the direction of travel is simply specified, but the method of specifying an advertisement according to the direction of travel of the elevator is not limited to this. As a non-limiting example, when ascending, the terminal 20 may be configured to display advertisement information related to the user's destination floor, and when descending, the terminal 20 may be configured to display advertisements for floors that stores in the building want the user to go to, or advertisements for any floor on the way down. Also, as a non-limiting example, even if a floor is not specified from the user's terminal 20, advertisements according to the direction of travel of the elevator may or may not be displayed.

<Effects of Modification 2>
As shown in the above-mentioned modified example 2, the server 10 transmits advertising information related to a floor in the direction of travel of the elevator to the terminal 20, and causes the terminal 20 to display the advertising information.
Therefore, by showing the user an advertisement for a floor that is a potential destination of the user, it is possible to increase the possibility of the user becoming interested in the corresponding floor and stopping by.

<Modification 3>
In the present third modification, a process will be described in the case where the user gets off the elevator before the elevator reaches the floor specified by the user.

Figure 31 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the server 10. When the terminal 20 receives a beacon signal, it periodically (as an example, but not limited to, every 0.5 seconds as a time interval at which location confirmation is possible) transmits an elevator ID based on the received beacon signal to the server 10.

The control unit 11 of the server 10 determines whether the elevator has reached the floor specified by the user (step S3101). This determination can be realized, for example, by obtaining information on the floor where the elevator is located from the elevator control unit 412. If the elevator has reached the floor specified by the user (YES in step S3101), the process ends.

If the elevator has not reached the floor specified by the user (NO in step S3101), the control unit 11 determines whether or not an elevator ID has been received from the user's terminal 20 (step S3102). This determination can be made, for example, based on whether a predetermined time (for example, but not limited to, 2 seconds) has elapsed since the elevator ID of the elevator the user was riding in was no longer received from the user. If the elevator ID has been received (YES in step S3102), the process returns to step S3101.

If the elevator ID has not been received from the user's terminal (NO in step S3102), the control unit 11 determines that the user has already exited the elevator, sends an instruction to the elevator control unit 412 to cancel the stop at the floor where the user originally planned to exit (step S3103), and ends the process.

<Effects of Modification 3>
If the server 10 stops receiving the elevator ID from the user's terminal before the floor specified by the user is reached, it assumes that the user has got off the elevator and sends an instruction to the elevator control unit 412 to cancel the stop at the floor where the user was scheduled to get off.
This eliminates the waste of elevators stopping at floors where no one is planning to get off.

<Additional Information>
The server 10 may further include a billing unit that holds information that associates advertisement information with a distributor who distributes the advertisement information, and that bills the distributor corresponding to the advertisement information when the advertisement information is transmitted to the user terminal 20. In this case, the billing unit may or may not bill according to the number of pieces of advertisement information transmitted. The billing unit may or may not vary the amount of billing according to the number of pieces of advertisement information transmitted.

In addition, if the user's terminal 20 receives beacon signals from multiple different beacon transmitters 414 within a specified time range (e.g., within 30 seconds), it may or may not select the elevator ID of one beacon signal from among them and transmit it to the server 10. As a non-limiting example, the terminal 20 may or may not select the elevator ID of the beacon signal with the highest reception strength from among the multiple beacon signals and transmit it to the server 10.

Furthermore, the communication I/F 22 of the terminal 20 may be composed of multiple communication units, and as a non-limiting example, may be composed of a first communication unit that receives a beacon signal transmitted from the beacon transmitting unit 414, and a second communication unit that transmits the elevator ID included in the beacon signal received by the first communication unit to the server 10. In this case, the first communication unit and the second communication unit may communicate according to the same communication standard, or may communicate according to different communication standards. When communicating according to different communication standards, a terminal 20 that can support multiple communication standards can be provided.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 Communication system 10 Server 11 Control unit 111 Message processing unit 113 Instruction unit 114 Advertisement processing unit 12 Input/output unit 13 Display unit 14 Communication I/F (communication unit)
15 Storage unit 20 Terminal 21 Control unit 211 Message processing unit 212 Display processing unit 213 Elevator instruction unit 22 Communication I/F
23 Input/Output Unit 231 Touch Panel 232 Microphone 233 Speaker 234 Camera 24 Display Unit (Display)
25 Location information acquisition unit 28 Storage unit 30 Network

Claims (16)

A program executed by a server that communicates with a first terminal and a second terminal and stores information related to an advertisement,
receiving, from the first terminal by a communication unit of the server, first information related to a floor at which the user of the first terminal gets off the elevator, the first information including identification information of the elevator in which the user of the first terminal gets on;
transmitting first advertising information, which is information related to an advertisement, to the first terminal by the communication unit based on the first information;
receiving second information related to a floor at which a user of the second terminal gets off the elevator, the second information including identification information of an elevator in which the user of the second terminal gets on, from the second terminal by the communication unit;
Identifying, based on the first information and the second information, that a user of the second terminal has boarded an elevator in which a user of the first terminal is boarding;
The server transmits second advertising information, which is information relating to advertising, to the first terminal based on the fact that a user of the second terminal has boarded an elevator in which the user of the first terminal is boarding. A program executed by a server that communicates with a first terminal and a second terminal and stores information related to an advertisement,
receiving, from the first terminal by a communication unit of the server, first information related to a floor at which the user of the first terminal gets off the elevator, the first information including identification information of the elevator in which the user of the first terminal gets on;
transmitting first advertising information, which is information related to an advertisement, to the first terminal by the communication unit based on the first information;
receiving second information related to a floor at which a user of the second terminal gets off the elevator, the second information including identification information of an elevator in which the user of the second terminal gets on, from the second terminal by the communication unit;
Identifying, based on the first information and the second information, that a user of the second terminal has boarded an elevator in which a user of the first terminal is boarding;
The server transmits the first advertising information and second advertising information, which is information relating to advertising, to the second terminal based on the fact that a user of the second terminal has boarded an elevator in which the user of the first terminal is boarding. A program executed by a server that communicates with a first terminal and a second terminal and stores information related to an advertisement,
receiving, from the first terminal by a communication unit of the server, first information related to a floor at which the user of the first terminal gets off the elevator, the first information including identification information of the elevator in which the user of the first terminal gets on;
transmitting first advertising information, which is information related to an advertisement, to the first terminal by the communication unit based on the first information;
receiving second information related to a floor at which a user of the second terminal gets off the elevator, the second information including identification information of an elevator in which the user of the second terminal gets on, from the second terminal by the communication unit;
Identifying, based on the first information and the second information, that a user of the second terminal has boarded an elevator in which a user of the first terminal is boarding;
Based on the fact that a user of the second terminal has boarded an elevator in which a user of the first terminal is boarding, the server (i) transmits second advertising information, which is information relating to advertising, to the first terminal, and (ii) transmits the first advertising information and the second advertising information to the second terminal. The program according to any one of claims 1 to 3 ,
receiving, by the communication unit, purchase information indicating that a product or service related to the first advertisement information has been purchased by a user of the first terminal, the purchase information being transmitted from the first terminal ;
The server executes a process of transmitting, to the first terminal via the communication unit, bonus information based on the purchase of the product or service, based on the purchase information. The program according to any one of claims 1 to 4 ,
The server executes a process of transmitting third advertising information based on a product or service purchased by a user of the first terminal to the first terminal via the communication unit. The program according to any one of claims 1 to 5 ,
If the first advertising information based on the first information is not stored in the server, the server executes the process of transmitting fourth advertising information different from the first advertising information to the first terminal via the communication unit. The program according to any one of claims 1 to 6 ,
transmitting fifth advertisement information to the first terminal by the communication unit;
The server executes the process of receiving, via the communication unit, third information regarding the floor at which the user of the first terminal gets off the elevator, which is based on the fifth advertisement and which has been transmitted from the first terminal based on input from the user of the first terminal in response to the fifth advertisement displayed on the first terminal . The program according to claim 7 ,
The server executes a process of transmitting, via the communication unit, coupon information relating to the fifth advertisement to the first terminal based on an input by the user of the first terminal for the fifth advertisement. The program according to any one of claims 1 to 8 ,
When the elevator descends, the server executes a process of transmitting sixth advertising information, which is selected by the store in which the elevator is installed and is different from the first advertising information, to the first terminal via the communication unit. The program according to any one of claims 1 to 9 ,
Based on the first information, the server executes transmitting location information regarding the location of the elevator that is scheduled to stop at the floor where the user of the first terminal will get off the elevator to the first terminal via the communication unit. An information processing method for a server that communicates with a first terminal and a second terminal and stores information related to an advertisement, comprising:
receiving, from the first terminal by a communication unit of the server, first information related to a floor at which the user of the first terminal gets off the elevator, the first information including identification information of the elevator in which the user of the first terminal gets on;
transmitting first advertising information, which is information related to an advertisement, to the first terminal by the communication unit based on the first information;
receiving second information related to a floor at which a user of the second terminal gets off the elevator, the second information including identification information of an elevator in which the user of the second terminal gets on, from the second terminal by the communication unit;
Identifying, based on the first information and the second information, that a user of the second terminal has boarded an elevator in which a user of the first terminal is boarding;
The method includes transmitting second advertising information, which is information relating to advertising, to the first terminal based on the fact that a user of the second terminal has boarded an elevator in which the user of the first terminal is boarding. An information processing method for a server that communicates with a first terminal and a second terminal and stores information related to an advertisement, comprising:
receiving, from the first terminal by a communication unit of the server, first information related to a floor at which the user of the first terminal gets off the elevator, the first information including identification information of the elevator in which the user of the first terminal gets on;
transmitting first advertising information, which is information related to an advertisement, to the first terminal by the communication unit based on the first information;
receiving second information related to a floor at which a user of the second terminal gets off the elevator, the second information including identification information of an elevator in which the user of the second terminal gets on, from the second terminal by the communication unit;
Identifying, based on the first information and the second information, that a user of the second terminal has boarded an elevator in which a user of the first terminal is boarding;
The method includes transmitting the first advertising information and second advertising information, which is information relating to advertising, to the second terminal based on the fact that a user of the second terminal has boarded an elevator in which the user of the first terminal is boarding. An information processing method for a server that communicates with a first terminal and a second terminal and stores information related to an advertisement, comprising:
receiving, from the first terminal by a communication unit of the server, first information related to a floor at which the user of the first terminal gets off the elevator, the first information including identification information of the elevator in which the user of the first terminal gets on;
transmitting first advertising information, which is information related to an advertisement, to the first terminal by the communication unit based on the first information;
receiving second information related to a floor at which a user of the second terminal gets off the elevator, the second information including identification information of an elevator in which the user of the second terminal gets on, from the second terminal by the communication unit;
Identifying, based on the first information and the second information, that a user of the second terminal has boarded an elevator in which a user of the first terminal is boarding;
The method includes, based on the user of the second terminal getting on an elevator in which the user of the first terminal is riding, (i) transmitting second advertising information, which is information relating to advertising, to the first terminal, and (ii) transmitting the first advertising information and the second advertising information to the second terminal. A server that communicates with a first terminal and a second terminal and stores information related to an advertisement,
a communication unit that receives first information from the first terminal, which includes identification information of the elevator in which the user of the first terminal boards, regarding a floor at which the user of the first terminal gets off the elevator, transmits first advertising information, which is information related to advertising, to the first terminal based on the first information, and receives second information from the second terminal, which includes identification information of the elevator in which the user of the second terminal boards, regarding a floor at which the user of the second terminal gets off the elevator;
a control unit that determines that a user of the second terminal has boarded an elevator in which a user of the first terminal is boarding, based on the first information and the second information;
The communication unit transmits second advertising information, which is information relating to an advertisement, to the first terminal based on the fact that a user of the second terminal has boarded an elevator in which the user of the first terminal is boarding. A server that communicates with a first terminal and a second terminal and stores information related to an advertisement,
a communication unit that receives first information from the first terminal, which includes identification information of the elevator in which the user of the first terminal boards, regarding a floor at which the user of the first terminal gets off the elevator, transmits first advertising information, which is information related to advertising, to the first terminal based on the first information, and receives second information from the second terminal, which includes identification information of the elevator in which the user of the second terminal boards, regarding a floor at which the user of the second terminal gets off the elevator;
a control unit that determines that a user of the second terminal has boarded an elevator in which a user of the first terminal is boarding, based on the first information and the second information;
The communication unit transmits the first advertising information and second advertising information, which is information related to advertising, to the second terminal based on the fact that a user of the second terminal has boarded an elevator in which the user of the first terminal is boarding. A server that communicates with a first terminal and a second terminal and stores information related to an advertisement,
a communication unit that receives first information from the first terminal, which includes identification information of the elevator in which the user of the first terminal boards, regarding a floor at which the user of the first terminal gets off the elevator, transmits first advertising information, which is information related to advertising, to the first terminal based on the first information, and receives second information from the second terminal, which includes identification information of the elevator in which the user of the second terminal boards, regarding a floor at which the user of the second terminal gets off the elevator;
a control unit that determines that a user of the second terminal has boarded an elevator in which a user of the first terminal is boarding, based on the first information and the second information;
The communication unit, based on the fact that a user of the second terminal has boarded an elevator in which the user of the first terminal is boarding, (i) transmits second advertising information, which is information regarding an advertisement, to the first terminal, and (ii) transmits the first advertising information and the second advertising information to the second terminal.

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