Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and transmitting medium

#The present invention generally relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and an information transmitting medium and, more particularly, to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and an information transmitting medium that are adapted to receive information from an information provider by use of personal information existing on a network with a relatively simple terminal device from any desired location.

#With the recent popularization of the Internet, various pieces of information have come to be available. These pieces of information include the provision of a product purchase service and other various services.

#For example, when accessing a predetermined service or information provider through the Internet to purchase a predetermined product through the home page of that service or information provider, a user must input personal information such as his or her name, age, address, telephone number, and credit card number to submit these pieces of information to the provider. When accessing two or more service or information providers to acquire plural products, the user must submit his or her personal information to each of these providers every time he or she places an order. Usually, the personal information to be submitted to these providers is substantially the same in content. Therefore, the user needs to input the same information repeatedly, a time-wasting and error-prone operation.

#These and other objects of the invention will be seen by reference to the description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

#FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration example of a network system to which an information processing apparatus according to the invention is applied;

#FIG. 2 is a flowchart indicative of an operation at starting access on a terminal device 101 and a server 100 shown in FIG. 1;

#In the following, each of the means referred to in the appended claims is followed by an example of a corresponding embodiment enclosed by parentheses for easy understanding of the relationship between means and their embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that such a description does not necessarily restrict each means to the described embodiment.

#Now, an information processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1 comprises a storage means (for example, a user profile database 110 shown in FIG. 1) for storing personal information of two or more users and a providing means (for example, a proxy device 109 shown in FIG. 1) for providing the personal information stored in the storage means to the information processing device of an information provider (for example, a service provider device 114 shown in FIG. 1) on behalf of the information processing device of a user (for example, a terminal device 101 shown in FIG. 1) when the providing means is accessed by the information processing device of the user and is requested by the information processing device of the information provider for providing the personal information.

#The information processing apparatus as claimed in claim 2 further comprises a decision means (for example, step S71 shown in FIG. 8) for determining whether it is necessary to get the permission by the user for the provision of the personal information stored in the storage means and an inquiry means (for example, step S72 shown in FIG. 8) for inquiring, according to the decision made by the decision means, the information processing device of the user whether the personal information can be provided or not and receiving a reply therefor. According to the reply received by the inquiring means, the providing means provides the personal information stored in the storage means to the information processing device of the information provider.