Information collection system and information processing device

Abstract

To provide an information collection system and an information processing device that enable a collection device to collect information from a terminal even when the terminal is outside a range that can perform communication by a first communication method from the collection device.SOLUTION: In an information collection system, a multifunction device 102A which is a collection device collects information from each terminal 104 to be managed by short-range wireless communication. When there is a terminal 104 that has not collected information by short-range wireless communication, the multifunction device 102A requests a multifunction device 102B group which is a proxy device to collect information from the terminal 104 via a network 106 such as a LAN. Upon receiving the information collection request, the multifunction device 102B attempts short-range wireless communication with the terminal 104 indicated by the request, and when the communication has been performed successfully, the multifunction device reads information from the terminal 104 and responds the read information to the multifunction device 102A.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an information collecting system and an information processing device. [Background technology]

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

[0003] In the system disclosed in Patent Document 1, a transmission device transmits and receives information to and from a mobile terminal through short-range wireless communication. When the mobile terminal is out of range of short-range wireless communication, the transmission device searches for a communication station capable of short-range wireless communication. When a communication station is detected, the transmission device transmits and receives information to and from the mobile terminal via the communication station. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] JP 2014-131213 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] When the collection device collects information from the terminal through communication in the first communication method, if the terminal goes outside the range in which the collection device can communicate in the first communication method, information cannot be collected from the terminal.

[0006] An object of the present invention is to enable a collection device to collect information from a terminal even if the terminal is outside a range where communication is possible from the collection device using a first communication method. [Means for solving the problem]

[0008] The invention according to claim 2 is as follows: 1. An information collection system comprising a collection device and one or more proxy devices, wherein the collection device collects information from a terminal by communication using a first communication method, and if the collection device is unable to collect the information from the terminal by the communication, sends an information collection request for the terminal to the one or more proxy devices by communication using a second communication method, and collects the information of the terminal that is responded to by any of the one or more proxy devices in response to the information collection request, and if the proxy device is able to collect the information from the terminal by communication using the first communication method in response to the information collection request from the collection device, the proxy device responds to the collection device with the collected information, When the information of the terminal is to be kept confidential, the collection device sends the information collection request including a confidentiality instruction to the one or more proxy devices, and collects the information responded to by the terminal through communication of the second communication method in response to the information collection request including the confidentiality instruction; when the information collection request from the collection device includes the confidentiality instruction, the proxy device sends to the terminal through communication of the first communication method a transmission instruction instructing the terminal to transmit the information to the collection device through communication of the second communication method; and when the terminal receives the transmission instruction, the terminal transmits the information held by the terminal itself to the collection device through communication of the second communication method. Feelings It is a information collection system.

[0009] Claim 2 The invention relates to an information collection system as described in claim 2, characterized in that the first communication method is a more power-saving communication method than the second communication method, and the terminal normally disables the second communication method and waits for communication from the collection device or the proxy device using the first communication method, and when the terminal receives the transmission instruction from the proxy device using the first communication method, the terminal enables the second communication method and transmits the information held by the terminal to the collection device using the second communication method.

[0010] Claim 3 The present invention is characterized in that the first communication method is short-range wireless communication, and the terminal acquires and stores a communication address of the collecting device in the second communication method from the collecting device when pairing with the collecting device for the short-range wireless communication, and when receiving the transmission instruction, transmits the information held by the terminal to the stored communication address of the collecting device by communication in the second communication method. 1 or 2 The information collection system is as described above.

[0011] Claim 4 The invention relates to 1. An information collection system comprising a collection device and one or more proxy devices, wherein the collection device collects information from a terminal by communication using a first communication method, and if the collection device is unable to collect the information from the terminal by the communication, sends an information collection request for the terminal to the one or more proxy devices by communication using a second communication method, and collects the information of the terminal that is responded to by any of the one or more proxy devices in response to the information collection request, and if the proxy device is able to collect the information from the terminal by communication using the first communication method in response to the information collection request from the collection device, the proxy device responds to the collection device with the collected information,The information collection request includes service identification information for identifying a service, terminal identification information for identifying the terminal, and information identification information for identifying information to be collected, the terminal stores service identification information for a service that the terminal supports, and the agent device searches for the terminal having a combination of the service identification information and the terminal identification information included in the information collection request from the collection device by communication in the first communication method, and collects the information corresponding to the information identification information from the terminal found by the search. Feelings It is a information collection system.

[0012] Claim 5 The invention according to the present invention includes a processor, the processor collecting information from a terminal by communication of a first communication method, and if the information cannot be collected from the terminal by the communication, sending an information collection request about the terminal to one or more proxy devices by communication of a second communication method, and collecting the information about the terminal that is responded to by any of the one or more proxy devices in response to the information collection request. , love An information processing device, When the information of the terminal is to be kept confidential, the processor sends the information collection request including a confidentiality instruction to the one or more proxy devices, and in the process of collecting the information of the terminal, the processor collects the information that is responded to by the terminal through communication in the second communication method in response to the information collection request including the confidentiality instruction. It is an information processing device. The invention of claim 6 is an information processing device that includes a processor, which collects information from a terminal through communication of a first communication method, and if the information cannot be collected from the terminal through the communication, sends an information collection request about the terminal to one or more proxy devices through communication of a second communication method, and collects the information about the terminal that is responded to by one of the one or more proxy devices in response to the information collection request, wherein the information collection request includes service identification information that identifies the service, terminal identification information that identifies the terminal, and information identification information that identifies the information to be collected.

[0013] The invention according to claim 7 includes a processor, the processor receiving an information collection request for a terminal from another device through communication of a second communication method, acquiring information about the terminal through communication of the first communication method, and transmitting the acquired information to the other device through communication of the second communication method. , love Information processing device the information collection request includes service identification information for identifying a service, terminal identification information for identifying the terminal, and information identification information for identifying information to be collected, the terminal stores service identification information of a service that the terminal supports, and the information processing device searches for a terminal having a combination of the service identification information and the terminal identification information included in the information collection request from the other device by communication in the first communication method, and collects the information corresponding to the information identification information from the terminal found by the search. It is.

[0014] The invention according to claim 8 includes a processor, the processor receiving an information collection request regarding a terminal by communication in a second communication method from another device, acquiring information about the terminal through communication in a first communication method, and transmitting the acquired information to the other device through communication in a second communication method; Information processing device and when the information collection request from the other device includes a confidentiality instruction, the information processing apparatus transmits to the terminal, via the communication of the first communication method, a transmission instruction for instructing the terminal to transmit the information to the other device via the communication of the second communication method. It is. Effect of the Invention

[0015] BooksAccording to the invention, even if the terminal is outside the range where the collection device can communicate with the terminal using the first communication method, the collection device can collect information from the terminal.

[0016] In particular, claims 1 According to the invention related to 5 or 8, if the information to be collected is to be kept confidential, it can be transmitted directly from the terminal to the collecting device without going through the proxy device.

[0017] Claim 2 According to the present invention, while saving the power required for terminal communication under normal circumstances, confidential information can be transmitted to the information collecting device using a second communication method which consumes more power than the first communication method but has less risk of information leakage.

[0018] Claim 3 According to the present invention, it is possible to prevent information of a terminal from being directly transmitted to a device that the user of the terminal does not expect as a device for collecting information of the terminal.

[0019] Claim 4 or 6 or 7 According to the present invention, when a new service is added, service identification information can be assigned to the new service, and information regarding the new service can be collected from the terminal group without making any changes to the processing functions of the proxy device. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0020] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a system configuration of an embodiment; [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of a multifunction peripheral. [Diagram 3] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of a terminal. [Figure 4] FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of data content of the GATT service of the terminal. [Diagram 5] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of data contents of a database of a collection device. [Figure 6] FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a processing procedure executed by a collection device. [Figure 7] FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a processing procedure executed by a proxy device. [Figure 8] FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of data content of the GATT service of a terminal according to a modified example. [Figure 9] 13 is a diagram illustrating a part of a processing procedure executed by a collection device according to a modified example. [Figure 10] 13 is a diagram illustrating the remaining part of the processing procedure executed by the collection device of the modified example. [Figure 11] 13 is a diagram illustrating a processing procedure executed by a proxy device according to a modified example. [Figure 12] 13 is a diagram illustrating a processing procedure executed by a terminal of a modified example. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0021] <System Overview> An embodiment of an information collection system using the mechanism disclosed in this specification is illustrated in Fig. 1. As an example, this system is a system for managing the health of employees working in an office.

[0022] This system includes 102A and 102B that can communicate with each other via a network 106 such as a local area network in the office. The multifunction devices 102A and 102B are multifunction devices equipped with a printer, a scanner, a copier, a facsimile, an information processing function, and a network communication function.

[0023] 1, each user, i.e., employee, carries a terminal 104. In this example, the terminal 104 is a wearable terminal such as a smart watch equipped with a heart rate sensor, a body temperature sensor, etc. The sensors built into the terminal 104 periodically measure the heart rate, body temperature, etc. of the employee wearing the terminal 104, and generate information indicating the measurement results.

[0024] In the example of FIG. 1, one of the multiple multifunction peripherals 102A and 102B, the multifunction peripheral 102A, functions as a collection device that collects information such as heart rate from the terminals 104.

[0025] In order to save power of the terminal 104, information is collected from the terminal 104 using short-range wireless communication that consumes little power. As an example only, in the following description, BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) is used as a specific example of short-range wireless communication (Bluetooth is a registered trademark). In other words, short-range wireless communication (for example, BLE) is an example of communication of a first communication method that the multifunction peripherals 102A and 102B use to collect information from the terminal 104.

[0026] When BLE is used for communication to collect information, the terminal 104 operates as a BLE peripheral and provides information on the measurement results of the sensor group to the central as a GATT (Generic ATTribute profile) server. The multifunction peripheral 102A, which is a collection device, operates as the central, connects to the terminal 104, which is a GATT server, by the BLE protocol, and acquires information such as the heart rate from the terminal 104.

[0027] The communication distance of short-distance wireless communication such as BLE is short. Therefore, when an employee carrying a terminal 104 is outside the range where the multifunction device 102A can communicate with the terminal 104 via BLE, the multifunction device 102A cannot collect information from the terminal 104. In such a case, in this embodiment, the multifunction device 102A collects information of the terminal 104 from another multifunction device 102B via the network 106. That is, the multifunction device 102B near the terminal 104 collects information from the terminal 104 via BLE as a proxy for the multifunction device 102A and sends the collected information to the multifunction device 102A. The multifunction device 102B that collects information from the terminal 104 via BLE as a proxy for the multifunction device 102A, which is a collection device, is called a proxy device.

[0028] The communication between the multifunction peripherals 102A and 102B via a network such as a LAN is an example of a second communication method used by the collection device to send an information collection request to the proxy device. The second communication method has a longer communication distance than the first communication method. From another perspective, the first communication method is more power-efficient than the second communication method.

[0029] <Hardware configuration> An example of the main part of the hardware configuration of the multifunction peripherals 102A and 102B is shown in Fig. 2. The multifunction peripherals 102A and 102B shown in Fig. 2 have a circuit configuration in which, as hardware constituting an internal computer, a processor 202, a memory (main storage device) 204 such as a random access memory (RAM), a controller for controlling an auxiliary storage device 206 which is a non-volatile storage device such as a flash memory, an SSD (solid state drive), or an HDD (hard disk drive), an interface with various input / output devices 208, a network interface 210 which controls connection to a network such as a local area network, and the like are connected via a data transmission path such as a bus 212. The input / output device 208 includes, for example, a display device / input device such as a touch panel, an audio output device such as a speaker, and the like. The circuit configuration of the above-described parts may be the same as that of a general-purpose computer.

[0030] The MFPs 102A and 102B also include a BLE module 214, a printer 216, and a scanner 218, which are connected to the computer hardware via a bus 212 or the like. The BLE module 214 is a wireless communication module for short-range wireless communication conforming to the BLE protocol. The printer 216 and the scanner 218 are mechanisms for the copy, print, and scan functions of the MFPs 102A and 102B.

[0031] The computer hardware portion of the multifunction peripherals 102A and 102B executes information processing for processing for the UI (user interface), control of data exchange via a network, and control of various functional elements such as a scanner, printer, and facsimile machine. The computer hardware portion also executes the processing procedures as a collection device and as a proxy device described above and below. A program in which the contents of these various processing procedures are written is installed in the computer hardware via a network or the like and stored in the auxiliary storage device 206. The information processing device of this embodiment is realized by the processor 202 executing the program stored in the auxiliary storage device 206 using the memory 204.

[0032] Here, processor 202 refers to a processor in a broad sense, including general-purpose processors (e.g., CPU: Central Processing Unit, etc.) and dedicated processors (e.g., GPU: Graphics Processing Unit, ASIC: Application Specific Integrated Circuit, FPGA: Field Programmable Gate Array, programmable logic device, etc.).

[0033] Furthermore, the operations of the processor 202 may not only be performed by one processor 202, but may be performed in cooperation with a plurality of processors 202 located at physically separate locations. Furthermore, the order of the operations of the processor 202 is not limited to the order described in the following embodiment, and may be changed as appropriate.

[0034] An example of the main hardware configuration of the terminal 104 is shown in FIG. 3. In the example of FIG. 3, the terminal 104 has a circuit configuration in which a processor 302, a memory 304 such as a RAM, a controller for controlling an auxiliary storage device 306 such as a flash memory, an interface with an input / output device 308 such as a display or a touch input device, a network interface 310, a BLE module 314, and the like are connected via a data transmission path such as a bus 312. The processor 302 is also connected to a heart rate sensor 316 and a body temperature sensor 318 via a predetermined interface. The heart rate sensor 316 measures the heart rate of the employee wearing the terminal 104, and the body temperature sensor 318 measures the body temperature of the employee. The network interface 310 is an interface for network communication via a local area network or the like. The network interface 310 has a function of wireless communication such as Wi-Fi (trademark) that has a longer communication distance than short-range wireless communication such as BLE. The terminal 104 does not need to have the network interface 310.

[0035] A program describing the procedure for information processing of the terminal 104, which will be described later, is installed in the auxiliary storage device 306 of the terminal 104. The processor 302 executes the program while using the memory 304 as a working area, thereby realizing the information processing for this embodiment.

[0036] FIG. 4 shows a specific example of data stored in, for example, the auxiliary storage device 306 by the terminal 104 for the GATT service of employee health management in this example. This data includes a UUID (Universally Unique IDentifier) ​​that is identification information of the service, and information on characteristics used in the service. There are three characteristics for this service: employee ID, heart rate, and body temperature. Each characteristic has four attribute values: UUID, Permission, Security, and Value. The UUID of a characteristic is identification information of the information indicated by that characteristic. Permission is the authority that a central (collection device or agent device in this example) has for the value of that characteristic. In the illustrated example, the Permission of those three characteristics is "readable". Security indicates whether or not information protection is performed for that characteristic. In the illustrated example, the Security of those three characteristics is "none", which indicates that protection is not required for them. Value is the value of that characteristic. In particular, the value of the characteristic "employee ID" functions as identification information of the terminal 104 that holds the data of that GATT service. The illustrated example indicates that the heart rate of an employee with an employee ID (ID is identification information) of "AZ3857" is "70" and the body temperature is "36.2°C."

[0037] 5 shows an example of the data contents of the database that holds the information collected by the multifunction device 102A from each terminal 104. In this example, the multifunction device 102A collects information from each terminal 104 every hour on the hour between 8:00 and 22:00 on each business day of the company. In this database, the heart rate and body temperature of each employee are recorded every hour on the hour in association with the employee ID. For times when such information could not be collected, the database records the fact that "not collected."

[0038] <System Operation> Next, an example of the detailed operation of the system of this embodiment will be described.

[0039] First, each terminal 104 in this system periodically performs advertising according to the BLE protocol. In advertising, an advertising packet including the UUID of the target health management service (in this example, "1BA1EEF4-E76C-4D5B-A7C4-5086DB143B44") is broadcast.

[0040] The multifunction peripheral 102A, which is a collection device, executes the information collection procedure illustrated in FIG. 6 every hour on the hour.

[0041] In this procedure, the MFP 102A uses the BLE protocol to collect information from each terminal 104 under management at the top of the hour, which is the timing for collecting information, and records the collected information in a database (see FIG. 5) (602). More specifically, when the timing for collecting information arrives, the MFP 102A scans the UUID of the service in accordance with the BLE protocol. This finds each terminal 104 advertising that UUID. The MFP 102A reads out each characteristic of each terminal 104 found, i.e., employee ID, heart rate, and body temperature, and records the data for that timing in the database. The MFP 102A has a list of identification information, i.e., employee ID, of each terminal 104 under management, and at the timing for collection, collects information from the terminal 104 of each employee ID on the list.

[0042] Next, the MFP 102A determines whether information on all managed terminals 104 has been collected in block 602 (604), and ends the process if the result of this determination is Yes. On the other hand, if the result of the determination in block 604 is No, the MFP 102A executes the processes in blocks 606 to 612 for each terminal 104 for which information could not be collected at this timing.

[0043] That is, the MFP 102A selects one terminal 104 from which information could not be collected, generates an information collection request for that terminal 104, and transmits it to each MFP 102B (i.e., proxy device) on the network 106 (606). This transmission may be performed by multicast on a local area network, or may be performed by another method. The information collection request transmitted at this time is, for example, a character string in the following JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) format (JavaScript is a registered trademark): {“Service UUID”:“1BA1EEF4-E76C-4D5B-A7C4-5086DB143B44”, “Identification Characteristic UUID”:“5F2112A1-B5E5-4786-81A1-9973A886338F”, “Identification Characteristic Value”:“AZ3857”, “Required Characteristic UUIDs”:[“147BE099-6B56-4DC3-BCDC-E6FC5BC52BAB”,“16020D5F-51DE-465A-87BB-5DD7E81FF2F5”]}

[0044] The illustrated information collection request includes the UUID of the health management service described above as the value of the service UUID ("Service UUID"). The information collection request includes a value of "5F2112A1-B5E5-4786-81A1-9973A886338F" for the UUID ("Identification Characteristic UUID") of the identification information (i.e., employee ID) of the terminal 104 that is the subject of the request, and a specification of the value that the Value ("Identification Characteristic Value") of that identification information should have, "AZ3857." The information collection request further includes a list of UUIDs of characteristics to be collected ("Required Characteristic UUIDs"). In this example, the list includes UUIDs for heart rate and body temperature.

[0045] The MFP 102A then waits (608) for a response to the information collection request to be returned from one of the MFPs 102B. If it is determined in block 608 that a response has been returned, the MFP 102A records the information contained in the response, i.e., the heart rate and body temperature information collected by the MFP 102B from that terminal 104, in the database (610) and ends the processing for that terminal 104. The response wait in block 608 is repeated until a timeout occurs (the determination result in 612 is Yes). When the timeout occurs, the MFP 102A ends the processing for that terminal 104.

[0046] FIG. 7 illustrates a processing procedure of the multifunction peripheral 102B that is the proxy device.

[0047] In this procedure, MFP 102B waits to receive an information collection request from MFP 102A (702). If an information collection request is received (determination result of 702 is Yes), MFP 102B scans the UUID of the service specified in the request for a predetermined time (704) to search for a terminal 104 advertising that UUID. MFP 102B determines whether such a terminal 104 was found in this scan (706), and if not, ends the process.

[0048] If the determination result in block 706 is Yes, the MFP 102B connects to the found terminal 104 (708). Next, the MFP 102B reads the value of the characteristic to be searched for specified in the information collection request from the terminal 104, and determines whether the value matches the value specified in the information collection request (710). If the determination result in block 710 is No, the MFP 102B returns to block 704.

[0049] If the determination result in block 710 is Yes, the MFP 102B reads out the values ​​of the requested characteristics specified in the information collection request (712) and responds to the requesting MFP 102A with each read value, for example as JSON format data (714).

[0050] For example, if the information collection request is the one exemplified above, in block 704, the MFP 102B searches for a terminal 104 advertising the UUID "1BA1EEF4-E76C-4D5B-A7C4-5086DB143B44". In this example, the UUID (= "Identification Characteristic UUID") of the employee ID, which is the characteristic to be searched for, is "5F2112A1-B5E5-4786-81A1-9973A886338F". Therefore, in block 710, the MFP 102B reads the value of the characteristic with the UUID "5F2112A1-B5E5-4786-81A1-9973A886338F" and determines whether the value matches the value "AZ3857" indicated in the information processing request. Then, in block 712, the MFP 102B reads the values ​​of two characteristics with UUIDs of "147BE099-6B56-4DC3-BCDC-E6FC5BC52BAB" and "16020D5F-51DE-465A-87BB-5DD7E81FF2F5" and responds with each of the read values ​​to the MFP 102A. For example, if the terminal 104 found in blocks 704 and 706 has the GATT service data illustrated in Fig. 4, the response in JSON format sent by the MFP 102B in block 714 will be as shown below. { “Service UUID” : “1BA1EEF4-E76C-4D5B-A7C4-5086DB143B44”, “Identification Characteristic UUID”:“5F2112A1-B5E5-4786-81A1-9973A886338F”, “Identification Characteristic Value”:“AZ3857”, “Required Characteristics”:[ {“UUID”:“147BE099-6B56-4DC3-BCDC-E6FC5BC52BAB”, "Value":"70"}, {“UUID”:“16020D5F-51DE-465A-87BB-5DD7E81FF2F5”, "Value":"36.2"}]}

[0051] This response indicates the UUID of the service, the UUID and value of the employee ID that identifies the terminal 104, as well as the requested characteristics, namely the heart rate and body temperature values ​​"70" and "36.2".

[0052] In one example, the information collected by the collecting device from the terminals 104 under management in the above manner is stored in a database built into the collecting device and analyzed by the collecting device. As another example, the collecting device may transfer the information collected from the terminals 104 to a predetermined analysis system on the network. In this case, the analysis system stores the information transferred from the collecting device in a database and performs a predetermined analysis process on the stored information.

[0053] In the system described above, even if the collection device cannot collect information from terminal 104 via short-range wireless communication, if the terminal 104 is in the vicinity of one of the proxy devices, information is collected from the terminal 104 via the proxy device via a network such as a LAN.

[0054] Although the above describes an example in which a service relating to health management is the target, the present system can also be applied to cases in which information is collected for other services.

[0055] In addition, it is conceivable that a system consisting of a collection device and a proxy device for collecting information for a certain service may be required to collect information for another service (for example, a service for managing a group of terminals that generate information for a purpose other than health management, which is referred to as a second service). In such a case, it is generally necessary to change the implementation of the collection device and the proxy device for the second service, but the workload of such implementation changes is large. In contrast, in this embodiment, even when a target service is added, it is not necessary to change the implementation of the proxy device. The proxy device searches for a terminal 104 that corresponds to an information collection request from the collection device, and if such a terminal 104 is found, it performs a standard process of reading out the required characteristics from the terminal 104. Even if a new service is added, the proxy device may perform the same standard process for the service. In addition, when a new service is added to the collection device, a unique UUID may be assigned to the service, and a program may be modified or added to generate an information collection request for collecting information required for the service.

[0056] In the above, the MFP 102A is the collection device and the MFP 102B is the proxy device, but this is merely one example. The functions of both the collection device and the proxy device may be implemented in the MFPs 102A and 102B, and each MFP 102A and 102B may switch between functioning as either of the two devices for each service. In this case, if a processing procedure as a collection device is installed, the MFPs 102A and 102B execute the processing procedure, and if an information collection request is received from the other MFP 102A or 102B, they execute the processing procedure as a proxy device.

[0057] <Modification> The information collected in the service targeted by the system may be of a type that requires confidentiality (i.e., non-disclosure), such as personal information. In the example above, the employee's heart rate and body temperature collected in the service that manages the employee's health are a type of personal information and may be subject to confidentiality.

[0058] The collection device is essential for collecting information for the service, and the provider of the information understands that the information will be collected by the collection device even if the information is confidential. On the other hand, because proxy devices can be added to the system at any time, it is often not known in advance which proxy device will be used to collect information. It may be undesirable for the provider of the information to have confidential information acquired, even temporarily, by a proxy device that cannot be predicted in advance.

[0059] Therefore, in this modified example, when the information to be collected is to be kept confidential, instead of collecting the information from the terminal 104, the proxy device issues an instruction (hereinafter referred to as a "confidential transmission instruction") to the terminal 104 to transmit the information directly (i.e., without going through the proxy device) to the collecting device. Upon receiving the confidential transmission instruction, the terminal 104 transmits information held by its GATT service (e.g., the latest measurement value of a heartbeat sensor) to the collecting device, for example, via Wi-Fi (trademark).

[0060] To enable such direct transmission, the terminal 104 needs to be equipped with a network interface 310 having a Wi-Fi communication function. In addition, the terminal 104 needs to hold the communication address (e.g., IP address) of the collecting device for direct transmission. For this purpose, for example, when the terminal 104 is paired with the collecting device, the terminal 104 may acquire and hold the communication address from the collecting device when registering the terminal 104 as a management target in the collecting device. By registering the communication address of the collecting device in the terminal 104 when pairing with the collecting device, the information of the terminal 104 is prevented from being directly transmitted to a device (e.g., a proxy device) that the user of the terminal 104 does not expect to collect information of the terminal 104 in advance.

[0061] The terminal 104 may normally disable the Wi-Fi communication function to save power. In this case, the terminal 104 enables the Wi-Fi communication function only when transmitting information directly to the information collecting device in response to a confidential transmission instruction from the proxy device.

[0062] FIG. 8 illustrates an example of information that the terminal 104 holds for the GATT service in this modified example. The example in FIG. 8 is an example of data of the terminal 104 for a health management service similar to the example in FIG. 4. The data illustrated in FIG. 8 is obtained by adding two characteristics, a destination and a transmission request, to the data illustrated in FIG. 4. The destination is the communication address of the collecting device to which information is to be transmitted when a confidential transmission instruction is received from the proxy device, and Permission is set to "writeable". In the illustrated example, the IP address "192.168.0.100" (this is merely an example) obtained from the collecting device at the time of pairing or the like is held as the value of the destination. The transmission request is a characteristic for recording that a confidential transmission instruction has been received from the proxy device, and Permission is set to "writeable". The default value of the transmission request is "OFF", and the proxy device issues a confidential transmission instruction to the terminal 104 by rewriting this to "ON". In addition, among the characteristics illustrated in FIG. 8, the values ​​of the Security attributes for heart rate, body temperature, and destination are set to “Yes”, and the terminal 104 does not accept read requests for these from devices other than the collection device (e.g., a proxy device).

[0063] The processing procedure of the multifunction peripheral 102A (i.e., the collection device) in this modified example will be described with reference to Figures 9 and 10. Although it is merely an example, the example in Figures 9 and 10 is an example in which whether or not the collected information is subject to confidentiality is determined for each service.

[0064] Among the procedures in FIG. 9, blocks 902, 904, 906, 908, 910, and 912 are the same processes as blocks 602, 604, 606, 608, 610, and 612 shown in FIG.

[0065] 9, when it is time to collect information about a certain service, the multifunction peripheral 102A collects and records predetermined information from terminals 104 that can communicate via short-range wireless communication (902). Next, if there is a terminal 104 from which the multifunction peripheral 102A was unable to collect information in the process of block 902 among the terminals 104 it manages (the determination result in 904 is No), the multifunction peripheral 102A determines whether the information about that service is to be kept confidential (905). Here, it is assumed that the multifunction peripheral 102A has registered in advance, for each service from which it collects information, information indicating whether the information about that service is to be kept confidential or not.

[0066] If the determination result in block 905 is No, the multifunction device 102A executes the processes in blocks 906 to 912 for each terminal 104 for which information could not be collected at this timing. In block 906, a first type of information collection request is transmitted to the multifunction device 102B (i.e., the proxy device), and this first type of information collection request is the same type of request as the information collection request in the procedure of Fig. 6. In other words, the first type of information collection request has content that requests the proxy device to collect information from the target terminal 104 via short-range wireless communication. In blocks 908, 910, and 912 after transmitting this first type of information collection request, the multifunction device 102A waits for information to be responded to the information processing request from any of the multifunction devices 102B, as in the procedure of Fig. 6, and if a response is received, records the information in the database.

[0067] If the determination result in block 905 is Yes, the MFP 102A executes the processes in blocks 1002 to 1008 for each terminal 104 from which information could not be collected in block 902, as shown in FIG. 10. In block 1002, the MFP 102A selects one of the terminals 104 from which information could not be collected, generates a second type of information collection request for the terminal 104, and transmits it to each MFP 102B on the network 106 by a method such as multicast. The second type of information collection request is an information collection request that includes a confidentiality instruction. The confidentiality instruction is an instruction to the proxy device to transmit a confidential transmission instruction to the terminal 104, which requests the terminal 104 to directly transmit information held by the terminal 104 to the collecting device. The proxy device that has received the second type of information processing request transmits a confidentiality transmission instruction to the terminal 104 instead of requesting information collection from the target terminal 104. An example of the second type of information collection request described in JSON format is shown below. {“Service UUID”:“1BA1EEF4-E76C-4D5B-A7C4-5086DB143B44”, “Identification Characteristic UUID”:“5F2112A1-B5E5-4786-81A1-9973A886338F”, “Identification Characteristic Value”:“AZ3857”, “Writable Characteristic UUID”: “19AEBFB6-6AF5-4A8B-89F5-6B45B6A69D81”, “Writable Characteristic Value”:“ON”}

[0068] This second type of information collection request includes the UUID of the service and a characteristic that identifies the target terminal 104, i.e., the UUID and value of the employee ID. This request also includes the UUID of the transmission request, which is a writable characteristic for recording a confidentiality transmission instruction ("19AEBFB6-6AF5-4A8B-89F5-6B45B6A69D81"), and the value to be written to that characteristic ("ON"). The pair of the UUID of the transmission request and its value is an example of a confidentiality instruction.

[0069] After transmitting the second type of information collection request, the multifunction device 102A waits (1004) for the information to be collected to be sent from the target terminal 104. Then, when the information is sent from the terminal 104, the multifunction device 102A records the information in the database (1006). The multifunction device 102A also monitors for a timeout (1008), and if no information is sent from the terminal 104 before the timeout occurs, ends the processing of FIG.

[0070] An example of a processing procedure of the multifunction peripheral 102B in this modified example will be described with reference to FIG.

[0071] In this procedure, blocks 1102 to 1110 indicate the same processing as blocks 702 to 710 in Fig. 7. If it is found in block 1110 that the connected terminal 104 is the one to be searched for, the multifunction device 102B reads and writes information from and to the GATT service of the terminal 104 in accordance with the information processing request (1112). That is, if the information processing request is of the first type, in block 1112, the multifunction device 102B reads information from the terminal 104 in blocks 712 and 714 of the procedure in Fig. 7, and responds with the information to the multifunction device 102A. If the information processing request is of the second type, the multifunction device 102B writes "ON" to the value of the characteristic "transmission request" of the terminal 104.

[0072] Next, an example of a processing procedure of the terminal 104 in this modified example will be described with reference to Fig. 12. This processing procedure is executed by the terminal 104 when a confidential transmission instruction is received from the multifunction peripheral 102B in response to a second type of information collection request (i.e., when "ON" is written to the characteristic "transmission request").

[0073] In this procedure, the terminal 104 monitors the value of the characteristic "transmission request" in the GATT service (1202). When "ON" is written to the value of "transmission request", the terminal 104 enables the Wi-Fi communication function of the network interface 310 (see FIG. 3) (1204). Note that the Wi-Fi communication function of the terminal 104 is normally disabled to save power. The terminal 104 also generates transmission information to be transmitted to the collection device in response to the confidential transmission instruction (1206). An example of transmission information written in JSON format is shown below. { “Service UUID” : “1BA1EEF4-E76C-4D5B-A7C4-5086DB143B44”, "Characteristics":[ {“UUID”:“5F2112A1-B5E5-4786-81A1-9973A886338F”, "Value":"AZ3857"}, {“UUID”:“147BE099-6B56-4DC3-BCDC-E6FC5BC52BAB”, "Value":"70"}, {“UUID”:“16020D5F-51DE-465A-87BB-5DD7E81FF2F5”, "Value":"36.2"}]}

[0074] This is an example of information transmitted for a health management service, which is also taken up in the above embodiment. As shown in the example, the transmitted information includes the UUID of the service, "1BA1EEF4-E76C-4D5B-A7C4-5086DB143B44", followed by several characteristics. The first of these is a UUID indicating an employee ID and the value of that employee ID, followed by a UUID and value of the heart rate, and finally a UUID and value of the body temperature. When the terminal 104 receives a confidential transmission instruction for a certain service, the terminal 104 is programmed to generate transmitted information including the remaining characteristics of that service, excluding the transmission destination and transmission request, for example.

[0075] Next, the terminal 104 uses the Wi-Fi communication function to access the IP address indicated by the value of the destination characteristic, i.e., the multifunction device 102A, using HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure), and sends the transmission request to that IP address (1208). After this, the terminal 104 disables the Wi-Fi communication function (1210), and changes the characteristic value of the transmission request to "OFF" (1212). Here, HTTPS transmission path encryption is used, but the transmitted information may be protected by a different encryption method.

[0076] As described above, in this modified example, information to be kept secret is sent directly from the terminal 104 to the collection device without passing through the proxy device, so that the secrecy of the information is easily protected.

[0077] In the processing procedure of Fig. 9, whether or not the collected information is to be kept confidential is determined on a service-by-service basis, but this is merely one example. As another example, whether or not the collected information is to be kept confidential may be determined on a user-by-user basis (i.e., on a terminal 104-by-terminal basis). In such an example, the collection device only needs to have information indicating whether or not the user or terminal 104 is to be kept confidential, in association with the identification information of the user or terminal 104 (for example, the employee ID described above).

[0078] In the embodiments and variations described above, the collection device and the proxy device are multifunction peripherals. However, devices with built-in computers of types other than multifunction peripherals, such as personal computers, kiosk terminals, vending machines, etc., may also be used as the collection device and the proxy device.

[0079] In the above embodiment, the terminal 104 has a built-in sensor for detecting biological information such as heart rate and body temperature, but this is merely an example. The terminal 104 may use a different type of sensor to detect the state of the person or object to which the terminal 104 is attached. [Explanation of symbols]

[0080] 102A, 102B Multifunction device, 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.

Claims

1. A collection device and one or more proxy devices, The collecting device comprises: Collecting information from the terminal through communication in the first communication method; if the information cannot be collected from the terminal through the communication, sending an information collection request for the terminal to the one or more proxy devices through communication in a second communication method; collecting the information of the terminal that is responded to from any of the one or more proxy devices in response to the information collection request; The proxy device is when the information can be collected from the terminal through the communication of the first communication method in response to the information collection request from the collection device, the collected information is responded to by the collection device. An information collection system, comprising: The collecting device comprises: If the information of the terminal is to be kept confidential, the information collection request including a confidentiality instruction is sent to the one or more proxy devices, and the information responded to by the terminal through communication of the second communication method in response to the information collection request including the confidentiality instruction is collected; The proxy device is sending, to the terminal, via communication using the first communication method, a transmission instruction for instructing the terminal to transmit the information to the collecting device via communication using the second communication method when the confidentiality instruction is included in the information collection request from the collecting device; The terminal includes: When the terminal receives the transmission instruction, the terminal transmits the information held by the terminal itself to the collection device by communication using the second communication method. An information gathering system comprising:

2. the first communication method is a communication method that consumes less power than the second communication method, the terminal normally disables the second communication method and waits for communication from the collecting device or the proxy device in the first communication method, and when the terminal receives the transmission instruction from the proxy device in communication in the first communication method, the terminal enables the second communication method and transmits the information held by the terminal to the collecting device in communication in the second communication method.

2. The information collecting system according to claim 1 .

3. the first communication method is short-range wireless communication, The terminal includes: When pairing with the collecting device for the short-range wireless communication, the collecting device acquires a communication address of the collecting device in the second communication method from the collecting device and stores the communication address; When the transmission instruction is received, the information stored in the information storage device is transmitted to the communication address of the collection device via communication in the second communication method.

3. The information collecting system according to claim 1 or 2.

4. A collection device and one or more proxy devices, The collecting device comprises: Collecting information from the terminal through communication in the first communication method; if the information cannot be collected from the terminal through the communication, sending an information collection request for the terminal to the one or more proxy devices through communication in a second communication method; collecting the information of the terminal that is responded to from any of the one or more proxy devices in response to the information collection request; The proxy device is when the information can be collected from the terminal through the communication of the first communication method in response to the information collection request from the collection device, the collected information is responded to by the collection device. An information collection system, comprising: the information collection request includes service identification information for identifying a service, terminal identification information for identifying the terminal, and information identification information for identifying information to be collected; The terminal stores service identification information of a service that the terminal supports, the agent device searches for the terminal having a combination of the service identification information and the terminal identification information included in the information collection request from the collection device by communication in the first communication method, and collects the information corresponding to the information identification information from the terminal found by the search. An information gathering system comprising:

5. A processor is included. The processor, Collecting information from the terminal through communication in the first communication method; if the information cannot be collected from the terminal through the communication, sending an information collection request for the terminal to one or more proxy devices through communication in a second communication method; collecting the information of the terminal that is responded to from any one of the one or more proxy devices in response to the information collection request; An information processing device, The information processing device is characterized in that, when the information of the terminal is to be kept confidential, the processor sends the information collection request including a confidentiality instruction to the one or more proxy devices, and in the process of collecting the information of the terminal, the processor collects the information that is responded to by the terminal in response to the information collection request including the confidentiality instruction via communication using the second communication method.

6. A processor, The processor, Collecting information from the terminal through communication in the first communication method; if the information cannot be collected from the terminal through the communication, sending an information collection request for the terminal to one or more proxy devices through communication in a second communication method; collecting the information of the terminal that is responded to from any one of the one or more proxy devices in response to the information collection request; An information processing device, 2. An information processing apparatus comprising: an information collection request including service identification information for identifying a service, terminal identification information for identifying the terminal, and information identification information for identifying information to be collected.

7. A processor is included. The processor, receiving a request for information collection regarding the terminal from another device through communication in a second communication method; Acquiring information about the terminal through communication in a first communication method; transmitting the acquired information to the other device through communication in the second communication method; An information processing device, the information collection request includes service identification information for identifying a service, terminal identification information for identifying the terminal, and information identification information for identifying information to be collected; The terminal stores service identification information of a service that the terminal supports, the information processing device searches for the terminal having a combination of the service identification information and the terminal identification information included in the information collection request from the other device through communication in the first communication method, and collects the information corresponding to the information identification information from the terminal found by the search.

23. An information processing apparatus comprising:

8. A processor is included. The processor, receiving a request for information collection regarding the terminal from another device through communication in a second communication method; Acquiring information about the terminal through communication in a first communication method; transmitting the acquired information to the other device through communication in the second communication method; An information processing device, sending, to the terminal, via communication in the first communication method, a transmission instruction for instructing the terminal to transmit the information to the other device via communication in the second communication method, when the information collection request from the other device includes a confidentiality instruction; 23. An information processing apparatus comprising:

Images