Information collection system, information processing device, and information processing method

Abstract

This invention relates to an information collection system, an information processing apparatus, and an information processing method. The information collection system includes a collection device and one or more proxy devices. The collection device performs the following processing: collecting information from a terminal via communication using a first communication method; when the information cannot be collected from the terminal via the first communication method, sending an information collection request regarding the terminal to the one or more proxy devices via communication using a second communication method; and collecting the information from the terminal that is responded to by any one of the one or more proxy devices according to the information collection request. The proxy device performs the following processing: when the information can be collected from the terminal via communication using the first communication method according to the information collection request from the collection device, responding to the collection device with the collected information.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to an information collection system, an information processing device, and an information processing method. Background Technology

[0002] With the development of IoT (Internet of Things) technology, systems that collect and analyze information from sensors and other terminals in various locations via networks are becoming increasingly common. Furthermore, systems that collect information from mobile terminals via mobile phone networks and other wide area networks are also emerging.

[0003] In the system disclosed in Patent Document 1, the transmission device sends and receives information with a mobile terminal via short-range wireless communication. When the mobile terminal is outside the short-range wireless communication area, the transmission device searches for a communication station capable of short-range wireless communication. When a communication station is detected, information is sent and received with the mobile terminal via the communication station.

[0004] Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-131213

[0005] When the collecting device collects information from the terminal via communication using the first communication method, if the terminal appears outside the range from which the collecting device can communicate via the first communication method, then information cannot be collected from that terminal. Summary of the Invention

[0006] The object of the present invention is to enable the collection device to collect information from a terminal even when a terminal exists outside the range from which the collection device can communicate via the first communication method.

[0007] The invention involved in the first embodiment is an information collection system, characterized in that it includes a collection device and one or more agent devices. The collection device performs the following processing: collecting information from a terminal through communication in a first communication mode; when the information cannot be collected from the terminal through the communication, sending an information collection request about the terminal to the one or more agent devices through communication in a second communication mode; and collecting the information of the terminal that is responded to by any one of the one or more agent devices according to the information collection request. The agent device performs the following processing: when the information can be collected from the terminal through communication in the first communication mode according to the information collection request from the collection device, responding to the collection device with the collected information.

[0008] The second embodiment relates to the information collection system described in the first embodiment, characterized in that the collection device performs the following processing: when the information of the terminal is a confidential object, it sends the information collection request containing a confidentiality command to the one or more proxy devices, and collects the information from the terminal in response to the information collection request containing the confidentiality command via the second communication method. The proxy device performs the following processing: when the information collection request from the collection device contains the confidentiality command, it sends a sending command to the terminal via the second communication method to send the information to the collection device via the first communication method. The terminal performs the following processing: when it receives the sending command, it sends the information it possesses to the collection device via the second communication method.

[0009] The invention involved in the third embodiment is the information collection system described in the second embodiment, characterized in that the first communication method is a more power-efficient communication method than the second communication method. The terminal normally disables the second communication method and waits for communication from the collection device or the agent device under the first communication method. If the sending command is received from the agent device through the first communication method, the second communication method is enabled, and the information possessed by the terminal is sent to the collection device through the second communication method.

[0010] The invention involved in the fourth embodiment is the information collection system described in the second or third embodiment, characterized in that the first communication method is short-range wireless communication, and the terminal performs the following processing: when pairing with the collection device for the short-range wireless communication, it obtains and stores the communication address of the collection device under the second communication method; when receiving the sending command, it sends the information it possesses to the stored communication address of the collection device through the communication of the second communication method.

[0011] The invention involved in the fifth embodiment is an information collection system according to any one of the first to fourth embodiments, characterized in that the information collection request includes service identification information for identifying the service, terminal identification information for identifying the terminal, and information identification information for identifying the information to be collected. The terminal stores service identification information for the service corresponding to itself. The proxy device searches for the terminal with a combination of the service identification information and the terminal identification information included in the information collection request from the collection device through the first communication method, and collects the information corresponding to the information identification information from the terminal found by the search.

[0012] The invention involved in the sixth embodiment is an information processing device, characterized in that it includes a processor, which performs the following processing: collecting information from a terminal through communication in a first communication mode; when the information cannot be collected from the terminal through the communication, sending an information collection request about the terminal to one or more proxy devices through communication in a second communication mode, and collecting the information of the terminal that is responded to by any one of the one or more proxy devices according to the information collection request.

[0013] The invention involved in the seventh embodiment is an information processing device, characterized in that it includes a processor, which performs the following processing: receiving an information collection request related to a terminal through communication of a second communication method from another device, acquiring information related to the terminal through communication of a first communication method, and sending the acquired information to the other device through communication of the second communication method.

[0014] The invention involved in the eighth embodiment is an information processing device, characterized in that it includes a processor, which performs the following processing: receiving an information collection request related to a terminal via communication from another device in a second communication mode; when the information collection request contains information that the terminal sends information to the other device, issuing a command to the terminal to send the information to the other device via communication in a first communication mode.

[0015] The invention involved in the ninth embodiment is an information processing method, characterized in that information is collected from a terminal through communication in a first communication mode, and when the information cannot be collected from the terminal through the communication in the first communication mode, an information collection request about the terminal is sent to one or more proxy devices through communication in a second communication mode, and the information of the terminal is collected according to the information collection request and responded to by any one of the one or more proxy devices.

[0016] The invention involved in the 10th solution is an information processing method, characterized in that: receiving an information collection request related to a terminal through communication via a second communication method from another device, acquiring information related to the terminal through communication via a first communication method, and sending the acquired information to the other device through communication via the second communication method.

[0017] The invention involved in the 11th solution is an information processing method, characterized in that an information collection request related to a terminal is received through communication of a second communication method from another device, and when the information collection request contains information that the terminal sends information to the other device, a command is given to the terminal to send the information to the other device through communication of a first communication method.

[0018] Invention Effects

[0019] According to the invention of the first, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth or eleventh aspect of the present invention, the collecting device is able to collect information from a terminal even if there is a terminal outside the range from which the collecting device can communicate via the first communication method.

[0020] According to the second aspect of the invention, when the collected information is confidential, information can be sent directly from the terminal to the collecting device without going through a proxy device.

[0021] According to the invention of the third aspect of the present invention, the power required for communication of the terminal is generally saved, and information about confidential objects can be sent to the collection device through a second communication method, which consumes more power than the first communication method but has a lower risk of information leakage.

[0022] According to the fourth aspect of the invention, it is possible to prevent the device that collects terminal information from directly sending the terminal's information to a device that the user of the terminal has not considered.

[0023] According to the fifth aspect of the invention, when a new service is added, service identification information can be assigned to the new service without requiring any changes to the processing function of the agent device, and information related to the new service can be collected from the terminal group. Attached Figure Description

[0024] The embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the following figures.

[0025] Figure 1 This is a diagram illustrating the system structure of an implementation method;

[0026] Figure 2 This is a diagram illustrating the hardware structure of a multifunction printer;

[0027] Figure 3 This is a diagram illustrating the hardware structure of the terminal;

[0028] Figure 4 This is a diagram illustrating the data content of the GATT service on the terminal;

[0029] Figure 5 This is a diagram illustrating the data content of the database of the collection device;

[0030] Figure 6 This is a diagram illustrating the processing flow performed by the collection device;

[0031] Figure 7 This is a diagram illustrating the processing flow executed by the agent device;

[0032] Figure 8This is a diagram illustrating the data content of the GATT service of a terminal in a variant example;

[0033] Figure 9 This is a diagram illustrating a portion of the processing flow performed by the collection device in a modified example;

[0034] Figure 10 This is a diagram illustrating the remainder of the processing flow performed by the collection device in the example modification;

[0035] Figure 11 This is a diagram illustrating the processing flow executed by the proxy device in a modified example;

[0036] Figure 12 This is a diagram illustrating the processing flow of the terminal execution of a variant example.

[0037] Symbol Explanation

[0038] 102A, 102B - Multifunction printer; 104 - Terminal; 106 - Network; 202, 302 - Processor; 204, 304 - Memory; 206, 306 - Auxiliary storage device; 208, 308 - Input / output device; 210, 310 - Network interface; 212, 312 - Bus; 214, 314 - BLE module; 216 - Printer; 218 - Scanner; 316 - Heart rate sensor; 318 - Body temperature sensor. Detailed Implementation

[0039] <System Overview>

[0040] exist Figure 1 This illustration shows one embodiment of an information collection system using the construction disclosed in this specification. Although it is only an example, the system is designed for managing the health of workers in an office setting.

[0041] The system includes multifunction printers 102A and 102B that can communicate with each other via the office's local area network (LAN) or other networks 106. Multifunction printers 102A and 102B are multi-functional devices that combine the functions of a printer, scanner, copier, fax machine, information processing machine, and network communication.

[0042] Furthermore, in Figure 1 In this example, each user, i.e., staff member, carries a terminal 104. In this example, the terminal 104 is, for example, a wearable terminal such as a smartwatch equipped with a heart rate sensor and a body temperature sensor. These sensors built into the terminal 104 periodically measure, for example, the heart rate and body temperature of the staff member wearing the terminal 104, and generate information representing the measurement results.

[0043] exist Figure 1In the example, one of the multiplexers 102A and 102B, multifunction 102A, functions as a collection device for collecting information such as heart rate from these 104 sets of terminals.

[0044] To conserve power, the collection of information from terminal 104 is performed using low-power short-range wireless communication. Although this is just one example, in the following description, the specific example of this short-range wireless communication is the use of BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) (Bluetooth is a registered trademark). That is, short-range wireless communication (e.g., BLE) is an example of the first communication method used by multifunction printers 102A and 102B to collect information from terminal 104.

[0045] When BLE is used in communications for information collection, terminal 104 acts as a peripheral device for BLE and as a GATT (Generic Attribute Profile) server, providing the measurement results from the sensor array to the main unit. The data collection device, i.e., multifunction printer 102A, acts as the main unit and connects to the GATT server, i.e., terminal 104, via the BLE protocol to obtain information such as heart rate from terminal 104.

[0046] Short-range wireless communication such as BLE has a short communication range. Therefore, when the staff carrying terminal 104 is outside the range from which multifunction printer 102A can communicate via BLE, multifunction printer 102A cannot collect information from terminal 104. In this case, in this embodiment, multifunction printer 102A collects information about terminal 104 from other multifunction printers 102B via the network. That is, multifunction printers 102B near terminal 104 act as proxies of multifunction printer 102A to collect information from terminal 104 via BLE and send the collected information to multifunction printer 102A. Multifunction printer 102B, which acts as a collecting device, i.e., multifunction printer 102A, to collect information from terminal 104 via BLE, is called a proxy device.

[0047] The communication between multifunction printers 102A and 102B via a network such as a LAN is an example of the second communication method used by the collecting device to send an information collection request to the agent device. Compared to the first communication method, the second communication method allows for a greater communication distance. From another perspective, the first communication method is more energy-efficient than the second.

[0048] <Hardware Structure>

[0049] An example of the main components of the hardware structure of multifunction printers 102A and 102B is shown below. Figure 2 middle. Figure 2The illustrated multifunction printers 102A and 102B, as hardware constituting a built-in computer, include a processor 202; a memory (main storage device) 204 such as random access memory (RAM); a controller for controlling non-volatile storage devices such as flash memory, SSD (solid-state drive), and HDD (hard disk drive), i.e., auxiliary storage devices 206; and a circuit structure connected via data transmission paths such as a bus 212, including interfaces to various input / output devices 208 and a network interface 210 for controlling connections to networks such as local area networks. The input / output devices 208 include, for example, display devices that also function as input devices, such as touch panels, and audio output devices such as speakers. The circuit structure of the parts described above can be the same as that of a general-purpose computer.

[0050] Furthermore, the multifunction printers 102A and 102B are equipped with a BLE module 214, a printer 216, and a scanner 218, which are connected to the computer hardware via a bus 212. The BLE module 214 is a wireless communication module for performing short-range wireless communication based on the BLE protocol. The printer 216 and scanner 218 are mechanisms for enabling the copying, printing, and scanning functions of the multifunction printers 102A and 102B.

[0051] The computer hardware of multifunction printers 102A and 102B performs processing for the UI (user interface); control for exchanging data via a network; and information processing for controlling various functional components such as scanners, printers, and fax machines. Furthermore, this computer hardware also performs processing flows as a collection device (described above and below) and as a proxy device. Programs describing these various processing flows are installed on the computer hardware via a network or the like and stored in auxiliary storage device 206. Processor 202 executes the program stored in auxiliary storage device 206 via memory 204, thereby implementing the information processing apparatus of this embodiment.

[0052] Here, processor 202 refers to processor in a broad sense, including general-purpose processors (such as CPU: Central Processing Unit) and special-purpose processors (such as GPU: Graphics Processing Unit, ASIC: Application Specific Integrated Circuit, FPGA: Field Programmable Gate Array, programmable logic devices, etc.).

[0053] Furthermore, the actions of processor 202 can be executed not only by a single processor 202, but also collaboratively by multiple processors 202 located in physically separate positions. Moreover, the actions of processor 202 are not limited to the order described in the following embodiments, and can be appropriately modified.

[0054] An example of the main parts of the hardware structure of terminal 104 is shown below. Figure 3 In. Figure 3 In this example, terminal 104 includes a processor 302; a memory 304 such as RAM; a controller for controlling auxiliary storage devices 306 such as flash memory; and a circuit structure connected to input / output devices 308 such as displays and touch input devices, a network interface 310, and a BLE module 314, for example, via a data transmission path such as a bus 312. Furthermore, the processor 302 is connected to a heart rate sensor 316 and a body temperature sensor 318 via a defined interface. The heart rate sensor 316 measures the heart rate of the person wearing terminal 104, and the body temperature sensor 318 measures the person's body temperature. The network interface 310 is an interface for network communication via a local area network (LAN). The network interface 310 has the capability of wireless communication such as Wi-Fi (trademark), which has a greater communication range than short-range wireless communication such as BLE. Alternatively, terminal 104 may not have a network interface 310.

[0055] A program describing the information processing flow of the terminal 104, described later, is installed in the auxiliary storage device 306 of the terminal 104. The processor 302 implements the information processing for this embodiment by using the memory 304 as a working area and executing the program.

[0056] exist Figure 4The diagram illustrates a specific example of data stored in auxiliary storage device 306 by terminal 104 for performing GATT services related to employee health management, as shown in this example. This data includes the service's identification information, namely the UUID (Universally Unique Identifier), and information about the characteristics used in the service. The service has three characteristics: employee ID, heart rate, and body temperature. Each characteristic has four attribute values: UUID, Permission, Security, and Value. The UUID of a characteristic is the identification information of the information it represents. Permission refers to the permissions held by the switchboard (in this example, the collection device or agent device) relative to the value of the characteristic. In the example diagram, the permissions for these three characteristics are "readable." Security indicates whether the information for this characteristic is protected. In the example diagram, the security for these three characteristics is "none," meaning that no protection is required. The value is the value of the characteristic. In particular, the value of the characteristic "Employee ID" functions as identification information for terminal 104 in maintaining the data for this GATT service. The example in the figure shows that the staff member with staff ID (ID represents identification information) "AZ3857" has a heart rate of "70" and a body temperature of "36.2℃".

[0057] exist Figure 5 The diagram illustrates an example of the data content in a database maintained by the multifunction printer 102A containing information collected from each terminal 104. In this example, the multifunction printer 102A collects information from each terminal 104 every hour between 8:00 AM and 10:00 PM on each workday. The database records the heart rate and body temperature of each employee at each hour, establishing a correspondence between each employee and their employee ID. For times when this information cannot be collected, a "not collected" entry is recorded in the database.

[0058] <System Actions>

[0059] Next, examples of detailed operation of the system according to this embodiment will be described.

[0060] First, each terminal 104 of the system periodically executes announcements according to the BLE protocol. The announcement broadcasts an announcement data packet containing the UUID of the object, namely the health management service (in this example, "1BA1EEF4-E76C-4D5B-A7C4-5086DB143B44").

[0061] The collection device, namely the composite machine 102A, operates on every hour. Figure 6 The illustrated information collection process.

[0062] In this process, the multifunction printer 102A collects information from each terminal 104 of the managed object using the BLE protocol at the designated time for information collection, i.e., every hour on the hour, and records the collected information in the database (see reference). Figure 5 (602). More specifically, when the information collection time arrives, the multifunction printer 102A scans the UUID of the service according to the BLE protocol. This identifies each terminal 104 that has announced that UUID. The multifunction printer 102A reads the characteristics of each identified terminal 104, namely the staff ID, heart rate, and body temperature, and records them in the database as data for that time period. Furthermore, the multifunction printer 102A has a list of identification information for each terminal 104 under its management, namely the staff IDs, and collects information from the terminals 104 with each staff ID present in this list during the collection time.

[0063] Next, the multifunction printer 102A determines whether information (604) of all terminals 104 of the managed object has been collected in block 602. If the result of the determination is "yes", the process ends. On the other hand, when the result of the determination in block 604 is "no", the multifunction printer 102A performs the processing from block 606 to 612 for each terminal 104 that could not collect information in this time interval.

[0064] That is, the multifunction printer 102A selects a terminal 104 that cannot collect information, generates an information collection request for that terminal 104, and sends it to each multifunction printer 102B (i.e., agent device) (606) on the network 106. This transmission can be performed via multipoint transmission on a local area network or by other methods. The information collection request sent at this time is, for example, a JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) formatted string (JavaScript is a registered trademark) as shown below.

[0065]

[0066]

[0067] The illustrated information collection request uses a UUID (“Service UUID”) whose value includes the UUID of the aforementioned health management service. The information collection request includes the value “5F2112A1-B5E5-4786-81A1-9973A886338F” of the UUID (“Identification Characteristic UUID”) specifying the identification information (i.e., staff ID) of the target of the request, terminal 104, and the required value for that identification information (“Identification Characteristic Value”) is “AZ3857”. Furthermore, the information collection request includes a list of UUIDs for the characteristics to be collected (“Required Characteristic UUIDs”). In this example, the list includes the UUIDs for heart rate and body temperature.

[0068] Subsequently, the multifunction printer 102A waits for a response to the information collection request from any of the multifunction printers 102B (608). When a response is received in block 608, the multifunction printer 102A records the information contained in the response—namely, the heart rate and body temperature information collected by the multifunction printer 102B from the terminal 104—into the database (610) and ends processing of the terminal 104. The response in block 608 continues in standby mode until a timeout occurs (the determination result of 612 is "yes"). If a timeout occurs, the multifunction printer 102A ends processing of the terminal 104.

[0069] exist Figure 7 The following example illustrates the processing flow of the agent device, namely the multifunction printer 102B.

[0070] In this process, the multifunction printer 102B waits to receive an information collection request (702) from the multifunction printer 102A. When the information collection request is received (the result of 702 is "yes"), it scans for the UUID of the service commanded in the request (704) within a specified time and searches for the terminal 104 that advertises the UUID. The multifunction printer 102B determines whether such a terminal 104 has been found through the scan (706). If not found, the process ends.

[0071] When the determination result of block 706 is "yes", the multifunction printer 102B connects to the found terminal 104 (708). Next, the multifunction printer 102B reads the value of the feature of the search object specified in the information collection request from the terminal 104 and determines whether the value is consistent with the value specified in the information collection request (710). When the determination result of block 710 is "no", the multifunction printer 102B returns to block 704.

[0072] When the determination result of block 710 is "yes", the multifunction printer 102B reads the value of the feature of the request object specified by the information collection request (712) and responds to the multifunction printer 102A at the request end with the read values, for example, as data in JSON format (714).

[0073] For example, when the information collection request is as illustrated above, in block 704, the multifunction printer 102B searches for the terminal 104 with the notification UUID “1BA1EEF4-E76C-4D5B-A7C4-5086DB143B44”. Furthermore, in this example, the characteristic of the search target, i.e., the UUID (=“Identification Characteristic UUID”) of the staff ID, is “5F2112A1-B5E5-4786-81A1-9973A886338F”. Therefore, the multifunction printer 102B reads the value of the characteristic with UUID “5F2112A1-B5E5-4786-81A1-9973A886338F” in block 710 and determines whether this value matches the value “AZ3857” expressed in the information collection request. Then, the multifunction printer 102B reads the values ​​of the two features with UUIDs "147BE099-6B56-4DC3-BCDC-E6FC5BC52BAB" and "16020D5F-51DE-465A-87BB-5DD7E81FF2F5" from block 712, and responds to the multifunction printer 102A with the read values. For example, when the terminal 104 found in blocks 704 and 706 has Figure 4 When the data from the GATT service is illustrated, the JSON-formatted response sent by the multifunction printer 102B in block 714 is shown below.

[0074]

[0075] In the response, in addition to the UUID of the service, the UUID and value of the staff ID of the identification terminal 104, the requested characteristics are also shown, namely the values ​​of heart rate and body temperature "70" and "36.2".

[0076] As described above, in one example, the information collected by the collection device from the terminal group 104 of the managed objects is stored in a database built into the collection device and analyzed by the collection device. Furthermore, as another example, the collection device may also transmit the information collected from the terminal group 104 to a pre-defined analysis system located on a network. In this case, the analysis system stores the information transmitted from the collection device in a database and performs pre-defined analysis on the stored information.

[0077] In the system described above, even if the collecting device cannot collect information from the terminal 104 via short-range wireless communication, as long as the terminal 104 is near any proxy device, information can be collected from the terminal 104 via a network such as a LAN and via its proxy device.

[0078] Furthermore, the above example illustrates a service related to health management, but this system can also be applied to situations where information is collected for another service.

[0079] Furthermore, it is conceivable that a system consisting of a collection device and an agent device for collecting information for a certain service may be required to collect information for another service (e.g., a service that manages a group of terminals that generate information for purposes different from health management, referred to as a second service). In such cases, it is usually necessary to change the installation of the collection device and the agent device for the second service, but such installation changes are labor-intensive. In contrast, in this embodiment, even when adding a service that is to be targeted, it is not necessary to change the installation of the agent device. The agent device searches for a terminal 104 that matches the information collection request from the collection device. If such a terminal 104 is found, the agent device performs the routine processing of reading the required features from that terminal 104. Even when a new service is added, the agent device only needs to perform the same routine processing for that service. In addition, regarding the collection device, when a new service is added, a unique UUID is assigned to the service, and the program is modified or added in a manner that generates an information collection request for collecting the information required for that service.

[0080] Furthermore, the above explanation uses the case of multifunction printer 102A as the collection device and multifunction printer 102B as the agent device as an example, but this is only one example. It is also possible to install both the collection device and agent device functions in multifunction printers 102A and 102B, for example, switching each multifunction printer 102A and 102B to function as one of the two functions for each service. In this case, multifunction printers 102A and 102B execute the processing flow as a collection device when it is installed, and execute the processing flow as an agent device when an information collection request is received from another multifunction printer 102A or 102B.

[0081] <Variation Example>

[0082] Sometimes, the information collected by a system in a service that is designated as an object is information that requires confidentiality (i.e., secrecy), such as personal information. For example, the heart rate and body temperature of staff collected in the service managing staff health, as exemplified above, are a type of personal information and can be considered confidential.

[0083] The collection device is necessary to gather information for service purposes, and it is understood by the information provider that the information will be collected even if the information is confidential. However, there are also reasons why proxy devices can be added to the system at any time, and it is not uncommon for the provider to not know in advance which proxy device will be used when collecting information. Sometimes, even if confidential information is temporarily obtained by an unpredictable proxy device, it can still be detrimental to the information provider.

[0084] Therefore, in this variation, when the collected information is confidential, the proxy device sends a command to the terminal 104 to send the information directly to the collecting device (i.e., without via the proxy device) (hereinafter referred to as the "confidential transmission command") instead of collecting the information from the terminal 104. The terminal 104, having received the confidential transmission command, sends information maintained by its own GATT service (e.g., the latest measurement value from a heart rate sensor) to the collecting device, for example, via Wi-Fi.

[0085] To enable this direct transmission, terminal 104 needs to be equipped with a network interface 310 capable of Wi-Fi communication. Furthermore, terminal 104 needs to maintain the communication address (e.g., IP address) of the collecting device for direct transmission. Therefore, for example, when pairing terminal 104 with the collecting device, or when registering terminal 104 as a managed object with the collecting device, terminal 104 can obtain and maintain the communication address from the collecting device. By registering the communication address of the collecting device in terminal 104 during pairing, it is possible to prevent information from terminal 104 from being directly sent to devices (e.g., proxy devices) that the user of terminal 104 has not anticipated as the device collecting information from terminal 104.

[0086] In addition, under normal circumstances, the terminal 104 may disable the Wi-Fi communication function in order to save power. In this case, the terminal 104 enables the Wi-Fi communication function only when it sends information directly to the collection device according to the confidential transmission command from the agent device.

[0087] exist Figure 8 The example shown is the information that terminal 104 maintains for GATT services in this variant. Figure 8 Examples are with Figure 4 The example is the same as the data from terminal 104 used for health management services. Figure 8 The data shown is for the purpose of analyzing... Figure 4The illustrated data includes two appended features: the sending destination and the sending request. The sending destination is the communication address of the collecting device when a secure sending command is received from the agent device, and its permission is set to "writable". In the example, the sending destination value is the IP address "192.168.0.100" obtained from the collecting device during pairing (this is just one example). The sending request is a feature used to record the situation where a secure sending command has been issued from the agent device, and its permission is set to "writable". The default value for the sending request is "OFF", and the agent device issues a secure sending command to terminal 104 by changing it to "ON". Furthermore, regarding... Figure 8 The heart rate, body temperature, and transmission destination among the illustrated features are set to "yes" for security attributes. Regarding these, terminal 104 does not accept read requests from devices other than the collection device (such as agent devices).

[0088] refer to Figure 9 and Figure 10 The processing flow of the composite machine 102A (i.e., the collecting device) in this modified example will be described. Although it is only one example, Figure 9 and Figure 10 An example is given where the service provider specifies whether the collected information is confidential.

[0089] Figure 9 Blocks 902, 904, 906, 908, 910, and 912 in the process are related to... Figure 6 The same processing is applied to blocks 602, 604, 606, 608, 610, and 612 shown.

[0090] exist Figure 9 In the process, when it is time to collect information about a certain service, the multifunction printer 102A collects the prescribed information from the group of terminals 104 that can communicate via short-range wireless communication and records it (902). Next, if there is a terminal 104 among the managed terminals that cannot collect information through the processing of block 902 (the determination result of 904 is "no"), the multifunction printer 102A determines whether the information about that service is confidential (905). Here, in the multifunction printer 102A, each service that collects information on its own is pre-registered with information indicating whether the information for that service is confidential.

[0091] When the determination result of block 905 is "no", the multifunction printer 102A performs the processing from blocks 906 to 912 for each terminal 104 that failed to collect information during this timeout. In block 906, a first type of information collection request is sent to the multifunction printer 102B (i.e., the agent device), but this first type of information collection request is related to... Figure 6The first type of information collection request is the same type of request as the information collection request in the process. That is, the first type of information collection request has the content of entrusting the agent device to collect information from the terminal 104 designated as the target via near-field wireless communication. In blocks 908, 910, and 912 after sending this first type of information collection request, and the same as Figure 6 The process is the same. The multifunction printer 102A waits for a response from any of the multifunction printers 102B to collect the information. If a response is received, the information is recorded in the database.

[0092] When the decision result of block 905 is "yes", such as Figure 10 As shown, the multifunction printer 102A performs processing from blocks 1002 to 1008 for each terminal 104 for which information cannot be collected in block 902. In block 1002, the multifunction printer 102A selects one of the terminals 104 for which information cannot be collected, generates a second type of information collection request for that terminal 104, and sends it to each multifunction printer 102B on network 106 via multicast or other means. The second type of information collection request is an information collection request containing a confidentiality command. The confidentiality command is a command to the agent device requesting that the information possessed by the requesting terminal 104 be sent directly to the collecting device in a confidential transmission command to that terminal 104. The agent device that receives the second type of information collection request sends a confidential transmission command to the terminal 104 instead of requesting to collect information from the target terminal 104. The following shows an example of the second type of information collection request described in JSON format.

[0093]

[0094]

[0095] The second type of information collection request includes the UUID of the service and the UUID and value of the feature identifying the terminal 104 to be targeted, namely the staff ID. Furthermore, the request includes a writable feature for recording confidential transmission commands, namely the UUID of the transmission request (“19AEBFB6-6AF5-4A8B-89F5-6B45B6A69D81”) and the value written to that feature (“ON”). These sets of transmission request UUIDs and their values ​​are examples of confidential commands.

[0096] After sending the second type of information collection request, the multifunction printer 102A waits for the information to be collected from the target's terminal 104 (1004). If information is sent from the terminal 104, it is recorded in the database (1006). Furthermore, the multifunction printer 102A monitors for timeouts (1008), and if no information is sent from the terminal 104 by the timeout period, the process ends. Figure 10 The processing.

[0097] refer to Figure 11 An example of the processing flow of the composite machine 102B in this modified example will be explained.

[0098] In this process, blocks 1102 to 1110 represent the connection between... Figure 7 The same processing applies to blocks 702 to 710. When it is known in block 1110 that the connected terminal 104 is the search target, the multifunction printer 102B reads and writes information about the GATT service of the terminal 104 according to the information collection request (1112). That is, when the information collection request is a first type of information collection request, in block 1112, the multifunction printer 102B performs the following: Figure 7 In blocks 712 and 714 of the process, information is read from the terminal 104 and the information is responded to by the multifunction printer 102A. Furthermore, when the information collection request is a second type of information collection request, the multifunction printer 102B writes "ON" to the value of the "send request" feature of the terminal 104.

[0099] Next, refer to Figure 12 An example of the processing flow of terminal 104 in this variant will be described. This processing flow is the flow executed by terminal 104 when a confidential transmission command is received from multifunction device 102B according to the second information collection request (i.e., when "ON" is written in the feature "transmission request").

[0100] In this process, terminal 104 monitors the value (1202) of the feature "Send Request" within the GATT service. When "ON" is written to the value of "Send Request", terminal 104 enables network interface 310 (reference) Figure 3 The Wi-Fi communication function of terminal 104 is enabled (1204). Alternatively, under normal circumstances, terminal 104 disables the Wi-Fi communication function to save power. Furthermore, terminal 104 generates transmission information to be sent to the collection device according to a secure transmission command (1206). The following is an example of the transmission information described in JSON format.

[0101] {"Service UUID":"1BA1EEF4-E76C-4D5B-A7C4-5086DB143B44",

[0102] “Characteristics”:[

[0103] {"UUID":"5F2112A1-B5E5-4786-81A1-9973A886338F",

[0104] Value: "AZ3857"},

[0105] {"UUID":"147BE099-6B56-4DC3-BCDC-E6FC5BC52BAB",

[0106] Value: "70"

[0107] {"UUID":"16020D5F-51DE-465A-87BB-5DD7E81FF2F5",

[0108] Value: 36.2

[0109] This example is an example of information sent for health management services, as also mentioned in the above embodiments. As described above, in the sent information, the UUID of the service, "1BA1EEF4-E76C-4D5B-A7C4-5086DB143B44", contains several features. The first column is the UUID representing the staff ID and its value, followed by the UUID and value of the heart rate, and finally the UUID and value of the body temperature. When a confidential sending command for a certain service is received, the terminal 104 is programmed, for example, to generate sending information containing the remaining features of the service, excluding the sending destination and sending request.

[0110] Next, terminal 104 uses Wi-Fi communication to access the IP address represented by the value of the destination feature (i.e., multifunction device 102A) via HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure), and sends the transmission request to that IP address (1208). Afterwards, terminal 104 disables Wi-Fi communication (1210) and changes the value of the transmission request feature to "OFF" (1212). Here, HTTPS-based encryption is used, but the transmitted information can also be protected by other encryption methods.

[0111] As explained above, in this variation, the information of the confidential object is sent directly from the terminal 104 to the collection device without going through an agent device, thus making it easier to protect the confidentiality of the information.

[0112] exist Figure 9 The current processing flow uses an example where the service unit specifies whether the collected information is confidential, but this is just one example. For instance, another example could exist where the user unit (i.e., terminal 104 unit) specifies whether the collected information is confidential. In this example, the collecting device establishes a corresponding association with the user's or terminal 104's identification information (such as the aforementioned staff ID) to indicate whether the user or terminal 104 is a confidential entity.

[0113] In the embodiments and variations described above, the collection device and the agent device are multifunction printers, but other types of computer-built-in devices such as personal computers, self-service terminals, and vending machines can also be used as collection devices and agent devices.

[0114] Furthermore, in the above embodiment, terminal 104 is a terminal with built-in sensors for detecting liveness information such as heart rate and body temperature, but this is only one example. Terminal 104 can also be a terminal that detects the status of people and objects at the installation location of terminal 104 using other types of sensors.

[0115] The embodiments of the present invention described above are provided for illustrative purposes. Furthermore, these embodiments do not exhaustively encompass the present invention, nor do they limit the invention to the disclosed methods. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations will be readily understood. These embodiments were chosen and described to most readily explain the principles and applications of the present invention. Thus, those skilled in the art can understand the present invention through various modifications that are assumed to be optimized for specific uses of various embodiments. The scope of the present invention is defined by the foregoing claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. An information collection system, characterized in that, Multiple terminals, including terminal 1 and terminal 2; Includes a collection device and one or more agent devices. The collection device performs the following processing: Information is collected from the multiple terminals via communication using the first communication method. When the information is collected from the first terminal via the first communication method but cannot be collected from the second terminal, it is determined whether the information on the second terminal is confidential. When the information of the second terminal is not confidential, a first information collection request regarding the second terminal is sent to one or more proxy devices via a second communication method, and the information of the second terminal is collected in response to the first information collection request by any one of the one or more proxy devices. When the information of the second terminal is a confidential object, a second information collection request containing a confidentiality command is sent to the one or more agent devices, and the information in response to the communication from the second terminal via the second communication method according to the second information collection request is collected. The agent device performs the following processing: When the first information collection request is received, and the information can be collected from the second terminal via the first communication method according to the first information collection request, the collected information is responded to the collection device. Upon receiving the second information collection request, the command to send the information directly to the collection device via the second communication method is transmitted to the second terminal through the communication method described in the first communication method. The second terminal performs the following processing: When the sending command is received, the information contained in the second terminal itself is directly sent to the collection device through the second communication method.

2. The information collection system according to claim 1, characterized in that, The first communication method is a more power-efficient communication method than the second communication method. The second terminal normally disables the second communication mode and waits for communication from the collection device or the agent device under the first communication mode. If it receives the sending command from the agent device through the first communication mode, it enables the second communication mode and sends the information possessed by the second terminal to the collection device through the second communication mode.

3. The information collection system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The first communication method is short-range wireless communication. The second terminal performs the following processing: During pairing for short-range wireless communication with the collecting device, the communication address of the collecting device under the second communication mode is obtained from and stored. When the sending command is received, the information contained therein is sent to the communication address of the stored collection device through the second communication method.

4. The information collection system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The first information collection request and the second information collection request include service identification information for the identification service, terminal identification information for the second terminal, and information identification information for the collection object. The second terminal stores service identification information for the service it corresponds to. The agent device searches for the second terminal that has the combination of the service identification information and the terminal identification information contained in the first information collection request from the collection device via the first communication method, and collects the information corresponding to the information identification information from the second terminal found by the search.

5. An information processing device, characterized in that, Includes processor, The processor performs the following processing: Information is collected from multiple terminals via communication using the first communication method, wherein the multiple terminals include the first terminal and the second terminal. When the information is collected from the first terminal via the first communication method but cannot be collected from the second terminal, it is determined whether the information on the second terminal is confidential. When the information of the second terminal is not confidential, a first information collection request regarding the second terminal is sent to one or more proxy devices via a second communication method, and the information of the second terminal is collected in response to the first information collection request by any one of the one or more proxy devices. When the information of the second terminal is a confidential object, a second information collection request containing a confidentiality command is sent to the one or more agent devices, and the information in response to the communication from the second terminal through the second communication method according to the second information collection request is collected.

6. An information processing device, characterized in that, Includes processor, The processor performs the following processing: The second terminal receives a first information collection request or a second information collection request related to itself via a second communication method from another device, wherein the second information collection request includes a confidentiality command. Upon receiving the first information collection request, information related to the second terminal is acquired via communication using the first communication method, and the acquired information is then transmitted to the other devices via communication using the second communication method. When the second information collection request is received, the command to send the information directly to the other device is sent to the second terminal via the second communication method, through the communication method of the first communication method.

7. An information processing method, characterized in that, Information is collected from multiple terminals via communication using the first communication method, wherein the multiple terminals include the first terminal and the second terminal. When the information is collected from the first terminal via the first communication method but cannot be collected from the second terminal, it is determined whether the information on the second terminal is confidential. When the information of the second terminal is not confidential, a first information collection request regarding the second terminal is sent to one or more proxy devices via a second communication method, and the information of the second terminal is collected in response to the first information collection request by any one of the one or more proxy devices. When the information of the second terminal is a confidential object, a second information collection request containing a confidentiality command is sent to the one or more agent devices, and the information in response to the communication from the second terminal through the second communication method according to the second information collection request is collected.

8. An information processing method, characterized in that, The second terminal receives a first information collection request or a second information collection request related to itself via a second communication method from another device, wherein the second information collection request includes a confidentiality command. Upon receiving the first information collection request, information related to the second terminal is acquired via communication using the first communication method, and the acquired information is then transmitted to the other devices via communication using the second communication method. When the second information collection request is received, the command to send the information directly to the other device is sent to the second terminal via the second communication method, through the communication method of the first communication method.

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