GATEWAY DEVICE, METHOD OF COLLECTING STATISTICAL GEOGRAPHIC POSITION INFORMATION IN NETWORK ENVIRONMENT, METHOD FOR COLLECTING STATISTICAL GEOGRAPHIC POSITION INFORMATION FROM NETWORK ENVIRONMENT VIA CENTRAL SERVER, AND COMPUTER-READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM STORING A PLURALITY OF INSTRUCTIONS TO BE EXECUTED BY A PLURALITY OF PROCESSORS

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To collect statistical geographic position information in a network environment by using a gateway device which includes a CPU, internal and external network interfaces, a positioning unit and a 1st permanent memory. ;SOLUTION: A home gateway 2700 includes a CPU 704, a permanent memory such as a nonvolatile memory 2712, an internal network interface 2708, an external network interface 2704 and positioning unit 2716. The unit 2716 includes a global positioning module. The geographic position data are triggered by a request of a central server 2750 so that the global positioning module updates the position information on the gateway 2700. The updated position information is supplied to the server 2750 from the unit 2716 directly or via the CPU 704. The unit 2716 guides a user to manually input a geographic position identifier such as a ZIP code, and records the response of the user in the memory 2712.;COPYRIGHT: (C)2001,JPO