Terminal control device, server device, and terminal control method

Abstract

To provide a terminal controller capable of readily grasping a reading position for performing non-contact communication with a recording medium.SOLUTION: A terminal controller comprises: an acquisition unit for acquiring model information which identifies a model of a terminal device, on the basis of environmental information that is transmitted from the terminal device to a server when the terminal device accesses a Web page of the server and represents a use environment of the terminal device; a storage unit for storing the model information and a guide image representing a position in the terminal device where non-contact communication is capable of being performed; and a display controller for reading out the guide image in accordance with the acquired model information to display it on a display screen.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a terminal control device, a server device, and a terminal control method. [Background technology]

[0002] Some terminal devices, such as smartphones, are equipped with a communication module that performs contactless communication with recording media, such as IC (integrated circuit) cards. The antenna through which such a communication module communicates is often located on either the front or back of the smartphone, depending on the model, and its position on the surface also varies depending on the model. Patent Document 1 discloses a handheld reader capable of reading RFID tags. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Patent No. 6106138 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] However, the location of the antenna varies depending on the smartphone model, and in many cases it is not possible to directly determine the location from the smartphone's exterior. As a result, when a user tries to have a smartphone read an IC card, it is difficult to align the IC card with the antenna because the antenna's location is unclear. This results in a long time being required for the smartphone to read the IC card.

[0005] The present invention has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to provide a terminal control device, a server device, and a terminal control method that can easily grasp the reading position for contactless communication with a recording medium. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, one aspect of the present invention is a terminal control device having an acquisition unit that acquires model information that identifies the model of the terminal device from environmental information that represents the usage environment of the terminal device and is sent from the terminal device to the server when the terminal device accesses the server's web page, a memory unit that stores the model information and a guide image that represents a position where contactless communication can be performed on the terminal device, and a display control unit that reads out the guide image corresponding to the acquired model information and displays it on a display screen.

[0007] Another aspect of the present invention is a terminal control method executed by a computer, which obtains model information identifying the model of the terminal device from environmental information representing the usage environment of the terminal device, which is sent from the terminal device to the server when the terminal device accesses a web page of the server, and reads out a guide image corresponding to the obtained model information from a memory unit that stores model information and a guide image representing a position where contactless communication is possible on the terminal device, and displays the guide image on a display screen.

[0008] Another aspect of the present invention is a server device having a receiving unit that receives environmental information representing the usage environment of a terminal device, which is sent from the terminal device to the server device when the terminal device accesses a web page provided by the server device; an acquiring unit that acquires model information that identifies the model of the terminal device from the received environmental information; a memory unit that stores the model information and a guide image that represents a position at which contactless communication can be performed on the terminal device; and a display control unit that reads out a guide image corresponding to the acquired model information, sends it to the terminal device, and displays it on a display screen of the terminal device. [Effects of the Invention]

[0009] As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily grasp the reading position for performing non-contact communication with the recording medium. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0010] [Figure 1] 1 is a schematic functional block diagram showing the configuration of a communication system S including a terminal device in which a terminal control device according to an embodiment of the present invention is used. [Figure 2A] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a guide image G1 of a smartphone that is a first model. [Figure 2B] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a guide image G2 of a second model smartphone. [Figure 3] 10 is a flowchart illustrating the flow of processing in the terminal device 1. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0011] A terminal control device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic functional block diagram showing the configuration of a communication system S including a terminal device in which a terminal control device according to an embodiment of the present invention is used. In the communication system S, a terminal device 1 and a server device 2 are communicatively connected via a network N. The number of terminal devices 1 connected to the network N is not limited to one, but multiple devices can be connected. In this figure, two devices, a terminal device 1a and a terminal device 1b, are shown. When these two terminal devices are not particularly distinguished from each other, they may be simply referred to as terminal devices 1. The terminal device 1 is, for example, a computer, and may be any device such as a smartphone or tablet, which is capable of executing application software and has the function of contactless communication with an IC card.

[0012] The terminal device 1 includes a communication unit 11, a storage unit 12, an application execution unit 13, an acquisition unit 14, a display control unit 15, and a display unit 16.

[0013] The communication unit 11 has a function of communicating with the server device 2 via the network N. The communication unit 11 also has a communication module that performs contactless communication with a recording medium such as an IC card. The communication module has an antenna. The antenna receives and transmits radio waves for contactless communication with the IC card. The position where the antenna is provided in the terminal device 1 varies depending on the model of the terminal device 1. When the terminal device 1 is a smartphone, the antenna is often provided on either the front or back surface of the smartphone. Furthermore, the antenna is often not provided over the entire surface of the front or back surface, but is provided in a partial area. When the antenna is provided in a partial area of ​​the front or back surface, the location of that area also often varies depending on the model of the smartphone.

[0014] The IC card is a personal card that can be used to verify the identity of a person when performing personal authentication such as public personal authentication, etc. The personal card may be a My Number card.

[0015] The storage unit 12 stores various data. The storage unit 12 stores model information and guide images that indicate positions in the terminal device where contactless communication is possible, in association with each other. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a guide image. 2A is a diagram showing an example of a guide image G1 of a smartphone that is a first model. This guide image G1 includes an appearance image 100 of the back surface of the smartphone as the terminal device 1. In the guide image G1, the position (reference numeral 101) at which contactless communication can be performed on the back surface of the smartphone is approximately in the center in the vertical direction (longitudinal direction) and on the right side in the horizontal direction (shorter direction) on the back surface of the smartphone. Also, in the guide image G1, the external image of the IC card C is placed at a position relative to the external image 100 on the back of the smartphone where contactless communication between the smartphone and the IC card C is possible. The exterior image 100 is an image of the back of the smartphone because images showing the placement of the camera 102, the model name of the smartphone (symbol 103), the brand name of the smartphone (symbol 104), etc. are also displayed, so that it is possible to determine whether it is the front or back by using these as clues.

[0016] 2B is a diagram showing an example of a guide image G2 of a smartphone that is a second model. This guide image G2 includes an appearance image 110 of the back surface of the smartphone as the terminal device 1. In the guide image G2, the position (reference numeral 111) at which contactless communication can be performed on the back surface of the smartphone is slightly above the center in the vertical direction (longitudinal direction) and on the right side in the horizontal direction (shorter direction) on the back surface of the smartphone. Also, in the guide image G2, the external image of the IC card C is placed at a position relative to the external image 110 on the back of the smartphone where contactless communication between the smartphone and the IC card C is possible. The exterior image 110 is an image of the back of the smartphone because images showing the smartphone model name (reference numeral 113), smartphone brand name (reference numeral 114), etc. are also displayed, so that it is possible to determine whether it is the front or back by using these as clues.

[0017] The storage unit 12 stores such guide images in association with model information for each different model. Therefore, if the model information is known, a guide image corresponding to that model can be obtained. The storage unit 12 also stores application software (application programs) to be executed on the terminal device 1. The storage unit 12 is configured by a storage medium, such as a hard disk drive (HDD), flash memory, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), random access read / write memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), or any combination of these storage media. The storage unit 12 can be, for example, a nonvolatile memory.

[0018] In response to an instruction to execute an application input by the user of the terminal device 1, the application execution unit 13 reads out application software from the storage unit 12 and executes it. There are various types of application software, but in this case, the application software is equipped with a function for contactless communication with an IC card. For example, application software can be used to navigate to a website such as a homepage, and allow the user to access the webpage and perform various procedures on the webpage. These procedures include, for example, procedures for making various applications at financial institutions, insurance companies, etc., and procedures for changing registered information (such as an address). When performing these procedures, the user may read information stored on the IC card and use the read information to access a website provided by the server device 2. For example, if the IC card stores a user's name, address, date of birth, gender, etc., the application software may contactlessly communicate with the IC card to read the name, address, date of birth, gender, etc. stored on the IC card and transmit the information to the server device 2 to perform the procedure when performing an application procedure or a procedure for changing the address, etc., in response to a user's instruction. This allows the user to enter their name, address, etc. without having to perform operations such as character input. Furthermore, the information stored on the IC card can also be used for identity verification.

[0019] The acquisition unit 14 acquires model information identifying the model of the terminal device 1 from environmental data indicating the usage environment of the terminal device 1, which is transmitted from the terminal device 1 to the server device 2 when the terminal device 1 accesses a web page of the server. More specifically, the acquisition unit 14 acquires an identifier indicating the model information from the header of data transmitted when the terminal device 1 accesses a web page of the server after logging in to an application executed on the terminal device 1. For example, when a terminal device 1 and a server device 2 communicate on the web, data formats and procedures are defined in HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol). When data is sent from the terminal device 1 to the server device 2, a user agent in the terminal device 1 executes various processes and communications with the server device 2 in response to instructions from the user. The user agent is composed of a software program and hardware executed within the terminal device 1. When the user agent communicates, environmental information about the terminal device 1 is stored in a "User-Agent" field in the header of the communication data sent to the server device 2. The environmental information can include, for example, the name and version number of the software to be executed, model information about the terminal device 1, the name of the browser, the type of browser, and the version number of the browser. The character string written itself is sometimes called a user agent.

[0020] Examples of strings that can be written in the "User-Agent" field include the following: <For terminal devices compatible with OS 1> Mozilla / 5.0 (Linux; U; OS001 1.6; ja-jp; xxxTF02 Build / R1EA018) AppleWebKit / 528.5+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version / 3.1.2 Mobile Safari / 525.20.1 Here, the character string "xxx" indicates the manufacturer of the terminal device 1, and the character string "TF02" corresponds to the model information.

[0021] <For terminal devices that support OS 2> Mozilla / 5.0 (xyzPhone; CPU xxx OS TF04_2_5 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit / 604.5.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version / 11.0 Mobile / 15D5046b Safari / 604.1 Here, the character string "xxx" indicates the manufacturer of the terminal device 1, and the character string "TF04" after "xxx OS" corresponds to the model information.

[0022] When acquiring model information from the environmental information, the acquisition unit 14 may acquire the model information according to rules that allow it to determine which part of the character string representing the environmental information the model information will be written in. In other words, since the model information is written in some part of the environmental information according to the description rules for describing the environmental information, it is possible to identify the part where the model information is written and acquire the model information based on the description rules.

[0023] The display control unit 15 reads out from the storage unit 12 a guide image corresponding to the model information acquired by the acquisition unit 14, and causes the display unit 16 to display the guide image on its display screen. The display unit 16 is a liquid crystal display panel or the like, and displays various display screens. The input unit 17 receives input contents according to input operations from the user. The input unit 17 may be any one of a touch panel, a keyboard, a mouse, etc., or a combination of these.

[0024] The functions of the communication unit 11, application execution unit 13, acquisition unit 14, and display control unit 15 may be implemented as functions of the application software described above, and may be installed in advance in the terminal device 1 (stored in the storage unit 12), and the CPU may read and execute the application software. Alternatively, the application software may be downloaded from the server device 2 to the terminal device 1, and the CPU of the terminal device 1 may execute it. By providing the functions of the application execution unit 13, acquisition unit 14, and display control unit 15 as application software, the application software can identify the model of the terminal device 1 on which it is executed and display a guide screen, regardless of the terminal device 1 on which it is executed. Therefore, at the stage of providing the application software, it is not necessary to know in advance the model of the terminal device 1 on which it will be installed. Furthermore, the functions of the storage unit 12, the application execution unit 13, the acquisition unit 14, and the display control unit 15 may be realized as a terminal control device by a hardware circuit.

[0025] FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the flow of processing performed by the terminal device 1. When a user inputs an instruction to start application software, the application execution unit 13 reads and executes the application software from the storage unit 12. When the application software is executed, a login screen is displayed on the display unit 16. At this time, the user agent of the terminal device 1 communicates with the server device 2 and transmits communication data. The acquisition unit 14 acquires this communication data, acquires environmental information from the acquired communication data, and acquires model information from the environmental information (step S1). When the user inputs a password and logs in successfully, the application execution unit 13 displays on the display unit 16 a screen for performing one of the various procedures. When the application execution unit 13 proceeds to a process that requires reading an IC card to proceed with the procedure, the application execution unit 13 displays on the display unit 16 a message indicating that the IC card needs to be read. After that, the display control unit 15 reads out from the storage unit 12 a guide image corresponding to the model information acquired by the acquisition unit 14, and displays it on the display screen of the display unit 16 (step S3). In this case, for example, a guide image G1 is displayed on the display screen. In addition to the guide image G1, an explanatory message such as "Please hold your IC card over the smartphone in the position shown in the figure below" may be displayed on the display screen.

[0026] In this way, the reading position of the IC card according to the model of the terminal device 1 that executes the application software is displayed as a guide image. This allows the user to easily understand the position to hold the IC card over the smartphone to perform contactless communication between the IC card and the smartphone based on this guide image, and allows the user to smoothly hold the IC card over the smartphone. This reduces the time it takes to hold the IC card over the smartphone and have it read.

[0027] In addition, the acquisition unit 14, display control unit 15, and function for storing guide images in the above embodiment may be provided in the server device 2, and the server device 2 may acquire model information from the environmental information obtained from the terminal device 1, read out a guide image corresponding to the model indicated by this model information, send it to the terminal device 1 that sent it, and display it on the terminal device 1. In this case, the server device 2 may have a receiving unit that receives environmental information representing the usage environment of the terminal device, which is sent from the terminal device to the server device when the terminal device accesses a web page provided by the server device; an acquiring unit that acquires model information that identifies the model of the terminal device from the received environmental information; a memory unit that stores the model information and a guide image that represents a position where contactless communication can be performed on the terminal device; and a display control unit that reads out the guide image corresponding to the acquired model information, sends it to the terminal device, and displays it on the display screen of the terminal device. According to this configuration, the terminal device 1 does not need to have the acquisition unit 14, the display control unit 15, or a function for storing a guide image. Therefore, the terminal device only needs to have a general function for communicating with the server device 2 (a function for transmitting environmental information), and can display the guide image transmitted from the server device 2.

[0028] The functions of the application execution unit 13, acquisition unit 14, and display control unit 15 in the above-described embodiment may be implemented by a computer. In this case, a program for implementing these functions may be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium, and the program may be loaded into a computer system and executed. Note that the term "computer system" as used herein includes hardware such as an OS and peripheral devices. Furthermore, the term "computer-readable recording medium" refers to portable media such as flexible disks, optical magnetic disks, ROMs, and CD-ROMs, as well as storage devices such as hard disks built into a computer system. Furthermore, the term "computer-readable recording medium" may also include devices that dynamically store programs for a short period of time, such as communication lines used when transmitting programs via networks such as the Internet or telephone lines, or devices that store programs for a fixed period of time, such as volatile memory within a computer system serving as a server or client. The program may be for implementing only a portion of the above-described functions, or may be capable of implementing the above-described functions in combination with a program already stored in the computer system, or may be implemented using a programmable logic device such as an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array).

[0029] Although an embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above with reference to the drawings, the specific configuration is not limited to this embodiment, and includes designs within the scope of the gist of the present invention. [Explanation of symbols]

[0030] 1, 1a, 1b... terminal device, 2... server device, 11... communication unit, 12... storage unit, 13... application execution unit, 14... acquisition unit, 15... display control unit, 16... display unit, 17... input unit

Claims

1. an acquisition unit that acquires model information for identifying a model of the terminal device from environment information that indicates a usage environment of the terminal device and is transmitted from the terminal device to the server when the terminal device accesses a web page of the server; a storage unit that stores model information and a guide image that indicates a position where contactless communication is possible on a terminal device, the image being able to identify whether it is the front or back side of the terminal device, and the guide image being arranged such that an external image of an IC card that needs to be read to proceed with the procedure is positioned at a position where contactless communication with the terminal device is possible; a display control unit that reads out a guide image corresponding to the acquired model information and displays it on a display screen so that the user can understand whether to hold the IC card that needs to be read over the front or back of the terminal device in order to proceed with the procedure; A terminal control device having the same.

2. The display control unit When the model information is acquired and processing proceeds to a step requiring reading of the IC card, a guide image corresponding to the acquired model information is read out and the guide image is displayed on the display screen. The terminal control device according to claim 1 .

3. The acquisition unit After logging in to the application executed on the terminal device, an identifier indicating the model information is obtained from a header of data transmitted when the terminal device accesses a web page of the server. The terminal control device according to claim 1 or 2.

4. a receiving unit that receives environment information indicating a usage environment of a terminal device, the environment information being transmitted from the terminal device to the server device when the terminal device accesses a web page provided by the server device; an acquisition unit that acquires model information for identifying a model of the terminal device from the received environmental information; a storage unit that stores model information and a guide image that indicates a position where contactless communication is possible on a terminal device, the image being able to identify whether it is the front or back side of the terminal device, and the guide image being arranged such that an external image of an IC card that needs to be read to proceed with the procedure is positioned at a position where contactless communication with the terminal device is possible; a display control unit that reads out a guide image corresponding to the acquired model information, transmits it to the terminal device, and displays it on a display screen of the terminal device so that the user can understand whether to hold the IC card that needs to be read in order to proceed with the procedure over the front or back of the terminal device; A server device having the above configuration.

5. A computer-implemented terminal control method, comprising: acquiring model information for identifying the model of the terminal device from environment information indicating the usage environment of the terminal device, the environment information being transmitted from the terminal device to the server when the terminal device accesses a web page of the server; A guide image corresponding to the acquired model information is read from a storage unit that stores model information and a guide image that indicates a position on a terminal device where contactless communication is possible, the image allowing the user to know whether the image is the front or back side of the terminal device, and the guide image showing an appearance image of an IC card that needs to be read to proceed with the procedure, arranged at a position where contactless communication with the terminal device is possible, and the guide image is displayed on a display screen so that the user can know whether the IC card that needs to be read to proceed with the procedure should be held over the front or back side of the terminal device. Terminal control methods.

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