Information distribution system, information distribution apparatus, information communication terminal, and information distribution method

An information distribution apparatus in an information distribution system configured to distribute information requested from an information communication terminal via a communication line, comprising:

• a characteristic extractor configured to receive time-series data and extract a plurality of characteristic information items;
• an associator configured to fetch relevant information comprising a reference address of the information providing site on the communication line, the information providing site configured to provide related information for each characteristic information item, and to associate the characteristic information with the relevant information to generate associated information;
• a storage configured to store the associated information;
• a request acceptor configured to accept a distribution request from the information communication terminal of the relevant information and time-series data or its characteristic information via the communication line, and extract the characteristic information when the time-series data is accepted;
• an analyzer configured to collate the characteristic information accepted by the request acceptor with characteristic information of each characteristic information item stored in the storage unit, determine the closest characteristic information, and fetch relevant information associated with the characteristic information;
• and
• a distributor configured to distribute the relevant information fetched by the analyzer to the information communication terminal via the communication line.

An information communication terminal for use in an information distribution system, comprising:

• a requester configured to transmit time-series data or its characteristic information to an information distribution apparatus via the communication line to request distribution of relevant information of the time-series data;
• an acquirer configured to receive the relevant information distributed from the information distribution apparatus in response to the request;
• and
• a presenter configured to present the relevant information acquired by the acquisition unit and present an access guide to the information providing site on the communication line based on a reference address included in the relevant information.

An information distribution method comprising:

• receiving time-series data and extracting a plurality of characteristic information item;
• fetching relevant information comprising a reference address of an information providing site on a communication line, the information providing site configured to provide related information for each extracted characteristic information item;
• storing the characteristic information items, the relevant information, and associations between the characteristic information items and the relevant information;
• fetching through the communication line the time-series data or its characteristic information presented with a request for distribution of the relevant information;
• extracting the characteristic information when the time-series data is fetched;
• collating the fetched characteristic information or the extracted characteristic information with each stored characteristic information item;
• specifying the closest characteristic information;
• fetching relevant information associated with the specified characteristic information;
• and
• distributing the relevant information to a distribution request source via the communication line.