Search supporting apparatus, search supporting system, operation instructing terminal, search supporting method, and operation instructing system

A search supporting system, comprising:

• a transmission terminal, carried by a person being sought, for transmitting positional information of the sought person;
• a center side device for receiving positional information of the sought person from the transmission terminal and providing the position information;
• and
• a search terminal owned by a search manager,
• the search terminal comprising:
• means for making an inquiry to the center side device for positional information of the sought person;
• means for receiving positional information provided in response to the inquiry;
• means for acquiring information of the current position of the search terminal;
• and
• means for displaying a relative positional relationship based on received position information of the sought person and information of the current position of the search terminal.

A search supporting method, comprising the steps of:

• acquiring current position of a search manager:
• acquiring current position of a person being sought;
• and
• composing and displaying arrows from the search manager to the sought person on a map based on the current positions of the search manager and the sought person.

An operation instructing terminal, carried by an operations manager, for receiving an operation instruction and presenting the instruction to the operations manager after a specified registration operation by the operations manager, comprising:

• a storage section for storing received operation instruction content;
• a timer for clocking a time from the specified registration operation;
• and
• a control section for determining whether or not the time clocked by the timer has exceeded a specified time and, if the specified time has elapsed, carrying our erasure processing for information stored in the storage section.

An operation instructing system, comprising a plurality of operation instructing terminals and a center side device for transmitting instruction content to the operation instructing terminals,

• the operation instructing terminals comprising:
• a storage section for receiving and storing content of an operation instruction from the center side device;
• means for presenting content of an operation instruction stored in the storage section to an operations manager in response to an operation from the operations manager;
• and
• means for performing erasure processing of information stored in the storage section if a signal instructing erasure of information stored in the storage section is received from the center side device,
• the center side device comprising:
• means for managing missing flags representing loss of each operation instructing terminal;
• and
• signal transmission means for transmitting a signal instructing erasure of information to an operation instructing terminal having the missing flag set.

An operation instructing system, comprising a plurality of operation instructing terminals and a center side device for transmitting instruction content to the operation instructing terminals, wherein

• the operation instructing terminals comprise:
• means for acquiring operation instruction content from the center side device by accessing the center side device;
• a storage section for storing the acquired operation instruction content;
• means for providing operation instruction content stored in the storage section to an operations manager in response to operation from the operations manager;
• and
• means for carrying out erasure processing for information stored in the storage section if a signal instructing erasure of information stored in the storage section is received from the center side device, and
• the center side device comprises:
• means for managing missing flags indicating loss of each operation instructing terminal;
• and
• signal transmission means for referring to missing flags corresponding to the operation instructing terminals that are being accessed and, when a flag is set to indicate that a terminal is missing, transmitting a signal instructing erasure of the information to that operation instructing terminal.

An operation instructing terminal, carried by an operations manager, for acquiring operation instructions from an instruction center side and presenting the operation instructions to the operations manager, comprising:

• a storage section for storing acquired operation instruction content;
• means for collecting information relating to operating conditions of a terminal;
• and
• means for carrying out processing to make it impossible to refer operation instruction content stored in the storage section if the collected information related to operating conditions satisfies previously set operation stop conditions or if any instruction is acquired from the instruction center.

A search supporting system containing a center side device and a plurality of search supporting devices possessed by each search staff, wherein:

• the center side device comprises:
• means for transmitting a search instruction to a specific search supporting terminal possessed by a search manager selected from among search staff managing a search of a person being sought;
• and
• means for providing information about the sought person relating to a received search request in, response to a request from the specific search supporting device,
• wherein the search supporting devices are set to be capable of requesting information on the sought person if a search instruction is received

A search supporting system, comprising a transmitter carried by a sought person, a center side device and a search supporting device possessed by every search manager, wherein:

• the center side device comprises:
• means for holding a plurality of items of information relating to a sought person and respective security levels in a correlated manner;
• means for receiving current position information of a search supporting device and a request for sought person information from the search supporting device;
• means for calculating information on a relative positional relationship between a transmitter carried by a sought person and a search supporting device based on current position information of the search supporting device;
• means for determining a disclosable security level based on the relative positional relationship information;
• and
• means for providing information about sought persons up to a security level set as disclosable to a requesting search supporting device based on the determination.

A search supporting device, possessed by a search manager, comprising:

• means for detecting its own current position;
• means for acquiring current position of a transmitter carried by a sought person;
• means for calculating a relative positional relationship of itself and the transmitter based on the detected own current position information and the current position of the transmitter;
• means for receiving and storing a plurality of items of information relating to sought persons from a center side together with respective security level attributes;
• and
• means for determining disclosable security levels according to the calculated relative positional relationship and providing to a search manager information, among stored information relating to sought persons, that has been determined as being disclosable.