WO2004053728A1

WO2004053728A1 - System for transmitting data selectively adapted to each user

Info

Publication number: WO2004053728A1
Application number: PCT/FR2003/003562
Authority: WO
Inventors: Alain Obadia
Original assignee: Smddi
Priority date: 2002-12-02
Filing date: 2003-12-02
Publication date: 2004-06-24
Also published as: FR2848002A1; AU2003298393A1

Abstract

The invention concerns a data transmission system comprising a data center (10) connected via a data transmission network (12) to a plurality of information sources (14, 16, 18 or 20), the data center storing the data received from the sources after encoding them in accordance with predetermined criteria and being adapted to transmit par of the received data to at least one user. Said system comprises filtering means for transmitting to the user only data encoded according to criteria corresponding to the user profile, and the user is provided with a portable device (22) connected by radio waves to a radio transmission network (24) connected to the data transmission network, the portable device being adapted to receive at all times from the radio transmission network the data previously filtered by the filtering means.

Description

Data transmission system selectively adapted to each user

Technical Field The present invention relates to data transmission systems in which information is transmitted by a computer center such as a server connected to the Internet to a plurality of users, and relates in particular to a data transmission system selectively adapted to each user who receives them.

State of the art

The modern world has entered the era of telecommunications where gigantic amounts of information can be exchanged instantly between several users from anywhere, thanks in particular to the Internet.

Together with the Internet or equivalent Intranet networks, this exchange of information has been made possible through the use of portable devices such as mobile phones. These allow, thanks to a cellular radio transmission network (GSM, GPRS or UMTS) to exchange oral information, but also written messages (SMS) or to connect to the Internet so as to have instant access to all kinds of information available in servers.

Unfortunately, despite this extraordinary communication possibility, the information accessible by a user is the same for all users. A user who wants specific information corresponding to his personal tastes or interests must make his own selection with the difficulties inherent in the large amount of information available and the large number of information sources among which he must determine which one is likely to provide the information it needs.

In addition, the user is increasingly overwhelmed by information which he has not selected himself but which is disseminated by means of the current transmission networks to all the users of the network. This is so in the area of advertising where the amount of information received by a consumer is so large that very little of it reaches the level of awareness of the recipient. To increase the impact of advertising, publicists have developed databases integrating the purchasing history of a particular group of individuals. For example, the consumer who makes a purchase by means of the Internet network is offered other articles of the same kind later on the same network. Thus, these databases operate essentially retrospectively once purchases have been made and consumer trends established by considering their purchasing habits.

Statement of the invention

Consequently, the object of the invention is to provide a data transmission system enabling each user to selectively receive only information likely to interest or sensitize him.

Another object of the invention is to provide a data transmission system avoiding the user having to make himself the selection of the information likely to interest him from the information received. The object of the invention is therefore a data transmission system comprising a data center connected by means of a data transmission network to a plurality of information sources, the data center comprising a database for storing the information received from the sources after having coded it according to predetermined criteria and being adapted to transmit part of the information received to at least one user. This system includes filtering means for transmitting to the user only information coded according to criteria corresponding to the profile of the user, and the user has at his disposal a portable device connected by radio waves to a radio transmission network. connected to the data transmission network, the portable device being adapted to receive at any time from the radio transmission network the information previously filtered by the filtering means.

Brief description of the figures

The objects, objects and characteristics of the invention will appear more clearly on reading the following description made with reference to the drawings in which: FIG. 1 is a block diagram representing a data transmission system in which the invention is implementation, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart representing the various actions carried out in the data server according to the invention.

Detailed description of the invention

A system according to the invention is shown diagrammatically in FIG. 1. It mainly comprises a computer center or server 10 connected to the Internet network 12 and receives information of all kinds from information sources connected to the Internet network such as servers 14, 16, 18 or 20. The server 10 is empowered to provide selective information to a plurality of subscribers having a portable device such as the portable 22 by means of a radio transmission network 24 connected to the Internet by a gateway 26. The radio transmission network can preferably be the cellular network of GSM type (or GPRS or UMTS), but also any type of network likely to reach the portable device 22 at any location.

The server 10 has one or more databases 28 intended to store the data permanently received from the data servers 14 to 20, this data being able to be accessed following a request from the portable device 22. The server 10 is adapted to receive at any time the data indicating the exact position of the portable device 22 from one or more satellites, position which has been provided by the GPS receiver 32 associated with the portable device 22.

An essential characteristic of the system according to the invention consists in providing each subscriber only with filtered information which corresponds to the information which is necessary for him for his professional life, his private life, his interests, his hobbies, his travels. It turns out that the amount of information likely to be received today via the Internet is considerable and the vast majority of it does not interest every individual. With regard to advertising information, studies carried out among professionals have revealed that less than one advertisement in 800 is analyzed by the conscious nervous system of the recipient. It is therefore necessary to select the information received by each subscriber of the system so that the latter receives only the information likely to interest him.

To do this, the information received from the data sources 14, 16, 18 or 20 is coded so as to then be able to select among them the information of interest to each owner of a portable device 22. It is by possible example of placing in the header of any information received a codified part in the form of a word of n characters (for example 48 characters of 8 bits) corresponding to n domains or centers of interest associated with the information received. Thus an 8-bit character can be devoted to books with a first bit indicating that they are books, the other bits can be divided into two or three fields dedicated to the field to which the book relates (art books, history books, scientific books), difficulty understanding (scientific popularization or specialist books) at the cost of the book, etc.

When a new owner of a portable device registers as a subscriber to the server 10, he must complete a questionnaire. This questionnaire makes it possible to identify the profile of the future subscriber, taking into account objective criteria, their socio-cultural environment, the analysis of their centers of interest, their lifestyle, their consumption habits, their motivation. .. The content of this questionnaire then allows sophisticated software available to the server 10 to define the coded profile of the subscriber.

Another essential characteristic of the invention is the filtering of the information available to the data server 10 so as to provide the subscriber only with information which may be of interest to him. Filtering consists in performing a correlation between the codified part associated with each information and the coded profile of the subscriber.

This filtering can be modeled by the set theory carried out in the form of a tree structure, but also according to a mask type approach. In this case, the codified profile of the subscriber is composed of a series of characters comprising fields identical to the fields composing the codified part associated with the information. The correlation then consists in using the coded profile of the subscriber as a mask to compare the two sequences of characters bit by bit. so as to obtain a new series of characters in which each field has a certain value resulting from the correlation. Thus, if we consider that the information relates to a book on Egypt, the character relating to books will give a correlation result different from 0 while all the other parts of the correlation result will be 0 as far as where only the character associated with books in the coding of information is different from 0. The first bit of this character is equal to 1 (the individual likes to read) and the other fields are equal to 0 or 1 depending on whether there was a correlation or not between the value of the code associated with the information and the value of the code of the subscriber profile. Thus, in the case of a scientific book, the field corresponding to the level of interest of the book could be 0 because the subscriber, although he likes to read scientific books, only wants to be informed about popular scientific books.

The information is filtered using correlation software which is located in the server 10 or in the portable device 22. The filtering can take place during the transmission of the information by the server 10 or during the reception by the portable device. 22. If the radio transmission network 24 is a cellular network such as the GSM, GPRS or UMTS network, it is not possible to transmit gigantic amounts of information. In this case, the filtering is carried out by the correlation software located in the server 10 and the portable device 22 receives only selected information.

On the other hand, if the radio transmission network 24 makes it possible to broadcast large amounts of information such as the DAB network, all the information received by the server is broadcast, after being coded, to the portable devices and in particular to the portable device 22. The latter then filters the information received by applying the correlation software at its disposal as mentioned previously and only the information which has the greatest probability of interest to the subscriber is recorded by the portable device. This information is stored in the memory of the portable device (generally a mass memory) so that the subscriber can have access to it when he wishes. Note that the information transmitted to the subscriber by the server can be recorded by the portable device automatically, that is to say without the knowledge of the subscriber.

The information which has been received and coded by the server 10 is stored in the database 28. It is indeed possible for the subscriber to have access to posteriori information received some time before when it has not have been stored in the memory of the portable device. However, in order to avoid rapid saturation of the database 28, one way is for the server to assign a codification of the "Lifetime" type giving the period of time during which the information must be stored in the database. data. Thus, the majority of advertising information will have a very short life, while information concerning a museum will be kept indefinitely. It goes without saying that information concerning an exhibition will have a lifetime equal to the duration of the exhibition. A periodic review of the life times associated with the information allows the server to eliminate from the database information whose life time is reached or exceeded. This mechanism is also used for information that is stored in the memory of the portable device. In this case, it is of course software located in the portable device which proceeds to the elimination of information exceeding their "life time".

Each portable device 22 is provided with a screen allowing the display of the information transmitted by the server 10. The screen of such a portable device having a limited size, it can be admitted, in a variant of preferred embodiment of the invention, that only the summary of the selected information is displayed on the screen of the portable device and that the subscriber must then have access to the server by any means (a keyboard in general) to know all the information. This means can be a keyboard and / or a set of three ergonomic keys "scroll forward", "scroll back" and "execute". It is also possible to provide a voice synthesis means in the portable device allowing the subscriber to "listen" to certain information which he receives from the server or which is already stored.

The portable device also includes keys allowing communication from the portable device to the server 10. A key can be used for example to initialize an information request as mentioned previously. Another key can be used to confirm an entry to an event, the purchase of a book or any other confirmation of the subscriber's participation in an event when the information received relates specifically to this event.

The portable device 22 also has one or more essential keys. It is an alarm button used in exceptional cases. Assuming that the subscriber experiences discomfort from heart failure, or is in a state of hypoglycemia because he is diabetic, he presses the alarm button. An alarm signal is then transmitted to the server 10. The latter recognizing the alarm, then calls on the GPS system to determine the exact position of the subscriber. Then it immediately makes a request to an external service via an Internet link or any other link (not shown) such as the GSM network or the telephone network. Foreign service can be a hospital or an ambulance service if it is necessary to pick up the subscriber and provide care if necessary, or a taxi service or the police if it is an assault. Note that the choice of the service to contact can be facilitated by the subscriber profile recorded by the server (cardiac, diabetic) Of course, the alarm key can also be used in the event of aggression suffered by the subscriber . However, it is preferable for the portable device to have a "health" button to be pressed in the event of an accident or discomfort and a "aggression" button to be pressed when the subscriber is the victim of an attack. The server recognizes the key that has just been pressed and can call either an ambulance service in the first case, or the police in the second case. Alternatively, one can imagine that the subscriber is a blind person who needs information to find his way. In this case, he presses the alarm key in order to receive information on the path to take thanks to the GPS system. The information provided by the server is in this case converted into voice signals alone which can be understood by the blind person.

The GPS system is also useful when information stored by the server 10 in the database 28 relates to the location of the subscriber having the portable device 22. Assuming that the server determines, using the GPS system, that the subscriber is at a place where an event or an event such as an exhibition is taking place, he immediately warns the subscriber either by a message displayed on the screen of the portable device, or by a signal causing the flashing of a seeing. According to a specific embodiment, the portable device could have an electronic compass allowing the subscriber to determine the precise direction to take to go to the place of the event or event. The different actions carried out by the server 10 are illustrated by the flowchart in FIG. 2. At the start, it is determined whether the server 10 receives a message (step 40). As long as this event does not take place, the process is looped back. When a message is received, it is determined whether it is a call from the portable device to the server (step 42). If this is not the case, it is then information received from data sources 14, 16, 18 or 20. This information is coded in the manner mentioned above (step 44), then the coded information is stored in the database 28 (step 46).

At this stage, it is necessary to make an assumption. In fact, it is not possible for the server to transmit new information as soon as it is received without risking suffocation from the system. This is why a preferred embodiment consists in transmitting this information periodically according to a period which can vary according to the power of the server, the quantity of information received and the number of portable devices connected. Such a period can vary between a few seconds and several tens of minutes. It is therefore determined whether the required period has elapsed (step 48). If this is not the case, the process is looped back to the starting point awaiting a message (step 40).

When the period for transmitting the information is reached, the information previously coded is transmitted to the portable device (step 50), then the process is looped back to the starting point.

When the message received by the server is a call from the portable device because the subscriber has pressed a key on the device, as explained above, it is first determined whether it is an alarm

(step 52). If this is the case, the appropriate service (ambulance, taxi, police) is alerted (step 54) and the process is looped back to the starting point. If the message from the portable device is not an alarm message, it is determined whether it is a request from the subscriber to obtain information stored in the database (step 56). If this is the case, the server accesses this information and transmits it to the portable device.

(step 50) before looping the process back to the starting point.

If this is not the case, the message then corresponds to a confirmation of an event (such as the reservation of an entry to an exhibition or the purchase of a book) and the server then performs this confirmation (step 58) before looping the process back to the starting point.

Claims

1. Data transmission system comprising a data center (10) connected by means of a data transmission network (12) to a plurality of information sources (14, 16, 18 or 20), said data center comprising a database (28) for storing information received from said sources after coding it according to predetermined criteria and being adapted to transmit part of the information received to at least one user; said system being characterized in that it comprises filtering means for transmitting to said user only information coded according to criteria corresponding to the profile of said user, and in that said user has at his disposal a portable device (22) connected by radio waves to a radio transmission network

(24) connected to said data transmission network, said portable device being adapted to receive at any time from said radio transmission network the information previously filtered by said filtering means.

2. The data transmission system according to claim 1, in which each information received from one of said information sources (14, 16, 18 or 20) is codified by the addition of a codified part in the form of a word of n characters corresponding to the different fields or centers of interest associated with the information received.

3. The data transmission system according to claim 2, in which said computer center (10) has software making it possible to obtain a coded profile of said user from a questionnaire completed by said user, said questionnaire taking account of the socio-cultural environment of said user, his centers of interest, his lifestyle, his consumption habits, his motivation.

4. The data transmission system according to claim 3, in which said filtering means essentially consist of correlation software which performs a correlation between said coded part appended to the information stored in said database (28) and the profile. codified of the user.

5. The data transmission system as claimed in claim 4, in which said codified part appended to the information and said coded profile include identical fields, and said correlation software uses said coded profile as a mask to obtain a result making it possible to select 1 information only if it has a high probability of interesting said user.

6. The data transmission system according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the correlation between said coded part and said coded profile is carried out by said computer center (10) having said correlation software.

7. The data transmission system according to claim 4 or 5, in which the coded information is transmitted by said data center (10) to said portable device (22), the latter having said correlation software for performing the correlation between said part. codified and said profile coded so as to record the information in said portable device only if it has a high probability of interest to said user.

8. Data transmission system according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein said portable device (22) comprises a GPS receiver (32) so that said data center always knows the exact position of the user of said portable device.

9. The data transmission system according to claim 8, wherein said portable device (22) has at least one key making it possible, when pressed by the user, to transmit an alarm signal to said computer center , the latter then asking an adequate service 10 (ambulance, taxi, police) to go to the place where the user is located.

10. The data transmission system as claimed in claim 8, in which said data center sends a message to the user when the position determined by the GPS system (32) corresponds to a place where an event or a meeting is taking place. event likely to interest said user.

11. Data transmission system according to any one of claims 1 to 10, in which said portable device (22) comprises a key which, when pressed, allows the user to confirm an event such as the booking an entry to an exhibition or purchasing a

25 pound.

12. Data transmission system according to any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein said data center (10) assigns to each information received from said

30 sources of information (14, 16, 18, 20) a "life time" corresponding to the period of time during which

The information must be stored in said database

(28), said information being eliminated when the life time has elapsed.

35

13. The data transmission system as claimed in claim 1, in which said portable device (22) comprises a mass memory making it possible to store the information received from said computer center and which has been

5 previously filtered by said filtering means, said stored information being able to be called at any time by the user of said portable device.

14. The data transmission system according to claims 13, 10 wherein said portable device (22) includes voice synthesis means allowing the user of said portable device to listen to certain information stored in said portable device.

15. The data transmission system according to any one of claims 1 to 14, wherein said radio transmission network is a GSM or GPRS or UMTS cellular network.