APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR RECOMMENDING SERVICE

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of Korean Provisional Patent Application Nos. 10-2014-0034388, 10-2014-0034395 and 10-2014-0034391 filed with the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Mar. 25, 2014, and Korean Patent Application Nos. 10-2015-0032779, 10-2015-0032783 and 10-2015-0032785 filed with the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Mar. 9, 2015, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates to recommending a service by use of a user description, more specifically to providing a recommendation description for providing a service suitable for a user through a user description.

2. Background Art

As a vast amount of data has become easily accessible owing to the advancement of the Internet and network technologies, customized analyses of expanded data, such as big data, have been risen to a new issue. That is, rather than accessing the data itself, selecting and supplying valuable data for each individual's purpose has become more important for the differentiation of a service. Exposure to a large amount of data is rather less preferred, and providing higher quality data at a right time at a right place secures a greater number loyal users. In order to differentiate the service among a countlessly large number of similar services, the service needs to be customized by analyzing a variety of contexts of users.

SUMMARY

The present invention provides an apparatus and a method for recommending a service that can provide a recommendation description in order to provide a service customized for a user by use of a user description.

An aspect of the present invention provides an apparatus for recommending a service, which includes: a user description providing unit configured for storing a user description; a communication interface configured for receiving a request for recommendation of a service; and a recommendation engine configured for obtaining the user description corresponding to the request for recommendation of a service from the user description providing unit and generating a recommendation description by referring to the user description, wherein the user description includes at least one of UserProfileType, PersonProfileType, OrganizationProfileType, DeviceProfileType, GroupedProfileType, UsageHistoryTyp, EventType, interactionAtomType, artefactType, observableType, stateType, PreferenceType, EmotionType, VocabularySetType, ScheduleType, ActivityType, IntentionType, LanguageType, SpecialtyType, AccessibilityType, SocialInformationType and ObjectSharingType.

The UsageHistoryType may include multimediaExperienceType and DetailedUserInteractionType.

The PreferenceType may include at least one of AudioPresentationPreferencesType, DisplayPresentationPreferencesType, GraphicsPresentationPreferencesType, ServicePreferenceType, AudioPresentationPreferencesInfoType, TranslationPreferenceType, InterestedMediaType and WebLinkPreferencesType.

The LanguageType may include at least one of NameType, CompetenceReferenceType, LanguageRegionType, Type, ReadingLevelType, WritingLevelType, SpeakingLevelType and ListeningLevelType.

The CompetenceReferenceType may include CompetenceTestNameType, CompetenceLevelType, CompetenceTestURIType and CompetenceTestDateType.

The ScheduleType may include EventType, wherein the EventType may include at least one of SharedUser, RecurrenceInfoType, AlarmTimeType, AlarmFormatType and descriptionMethodType.

The apparatus for recommending a service may further include a service description providing unit configured for storing a service description, wherein the recommendation engine is configured for generating the recommendation description by referring to the service description and the user description corresponding to the request for recommendation of a service, and wherein the service description may include at least one of Service General Description, FormatType, ServiceTargetInformationType, ServiceTargetModelType, VocabularySetType, ServiceInterfaceType, RequiredInputDataType, InternalServicesType, InternalServiceType, LosslessAudioDBType, LossyAudioDBType, VideoDBType, ServiceObjectType and ObjectType.

The apparatus for recommending a service may further include a context description providing unit configured for storing a context description, wherein the recommendation engine is configured for generating the recommendation description by referring to the context description and the user description corresponding to the request for recommendation of a service, and wherein the context description may include at least one of ContextDescriptionType, ContextIdentificationType, DeviceCharacteristicsType, NewworkInfoType, LocationType, WeatherType, OtherEnvironmentalInfoType, AudioEnvironment, RecordingEnvironmentType and ContextPriorityType.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a method for recommending a service, the service being recommended by an apparatus for recommending a service. The method for recommending a service in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention includes: receiving a request for recommendation of a service; obtaining a user description corresponding to the request for recommendation of a service; and generating a recommendation description by referring to the user description, wherein the user description may include at least one of UserProfileType, PersonProfileType, OrganizationProfileType, DeviceProfileType, GroupedProfileType, UsageHistoryTyp, EventType, interactionAtomType, artefactType, observableType, stateType, PreferenceType, EmotionType, VocabularySetType, ScheduleType, ActivityType, IntentionType, LanguageType, SpecialtyType, AccessibilityType, SocialInformationType and ObjectSharingType.

The UsageHistoryType may include multimediaExperienceType and DetailedUserInteractionType.

The LanguageType may include at least one of NameType, CompetenceReferenceType, LanguageRegionType, Type, ReadingLevelType, WritingLevelType, SpeakingLevelType and ListeningLevelType.

The CompetenceReferenceType may include CompetenceTestNameType, CompetenceLevelType, CompetenceTestURIType and CompetenceTestDateType.

The ScheduleType may include EventType, wherein the EventType may include at least one of SharedUser, RecurrenceInfoType, AlarmTimeType, AlarmFormatType and descriptionMethodType.

The method for recommending a service may further include obtaining a service description corresponding to the request for recommendation of a service, wherein in the generating of the recommendation description by referring to the user description, the recommendation description is generated by referring to the user description and the service description, wherein the service description may include at least one of Service General Description, FormatType, ServiceTargetInformationType, ServiceTargetModelType, VocabularySetType, ServiceInterfaceType, RequiredInputDataType, InternalServicesType, InternalServiceType, LosslessAudioDBType, LossyAudioDBType, VideoDBType, ServiceObjectType and ObjectType.

The method for recommending a service may further include obtaining a context description corresponding to the request for recommendation of a service, wherein in the generating of the recommendation description by referring to the user description, the recommendation description is generated by referring to the user description and the context description, and wherein the context description may include at least one of ContextDescriptionType, ContextIdentificationType, DeviceCharacteristicsType, NewworkInfoType, LocationType, WeatherType, OtherEnvironmentalInfoType, AudioEnvironment, RecordingEnvironmentType and ContextPriorityType.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an apparatus for recommending a service in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram showing how the apparatus for recommending a service recommends a service in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a computer system implemented with the apparatus for recommending a service in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Since there can be a variety of permutations and embodiments of the present invention, certain embodiments will be illustrated and described with reference to the accompanying drawings. This, however, is by no means to restrict the present invention to certain embodiments, and shall be construed as including all permutations, equivalents and substitutes covered by the ideas and scope of the present invention.

When one element is described to “send” or “transmit” a signal to another element, it shall be construed that the signal is sent or transmitted to the other element by having the one element directly connected to the other element but also by, unless explicitly described otherwise, possibly having another element interposed between the one element and the other element.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an apparatus for recommending a service in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, an apparatus 100 for recommending a service in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention includes a communication interface 110, a recommendation engine 120, a user description providing unit 130, a service description providing unit 140 and a context description providing unit 150.

The communication interface 110 is connected with a service providing apparatus 50 through a communication network to receive a request for recommendation of a service from the service providing apparatus 50 and send the request to the recommendation engine 120. Here, the request for recommendation of a service may include an identification information of a user who will receive the service.

Moreover, upon receiving a recommendation description from the recommendation engine 120, the communication interface 110 transmits the recommendation description to the service providing apparatus 50, which is an apparatus that provides a specific service to the user. For example, the service providing apparatus 50 may be any device, such as a user terminal or a server providing a service to the user terminal, which is connected with the communication interface 110 through a communication network.

Upon receiving the request for recommendation of a service, the recommendation engine 120 generates a recommendation description used for providing a service suitable for the user. The recommendation engine 120 obtains a user description from the user description providing unit 130, a service description from the service description providing unit and a context description from the context description providing unit 150. The recommendation engine 120 analyzes the obtained user description, service description and context description according to a predetermined pattern and generates the recommendation description. The recommendation description is a set of recommended information elements provided to applications in a structural, efficient, compact fashion when a customer requests for a service in a specific environment. The recommendation description may include information extracted from the user description, context description and service description, information indicating a logical relation between the user/context/service descriptions and metadata. The recommendation engine 120 that generates the recommendation description may have various ranges of complexity and performance. The recommendation description may have a general format that is independent from applications. Here, the recommendation engine 120 may generate the recommendation description according to a pattern known through, for example, the MPEG-UP standard. The recommendation engine 120 transmits the recommendation description to the service providing apparatus 50 through the communication interface 110.

The user description providing unit 130 stores the user description and provides the description to the recommendation engine 120. For example, the recommendation engine 120 sends a request for user description, including the identification information of the user, to the user description providing unit 130, and the user description providing unit 130 sends the user description corresponding to the identification information of the user to the recommendation engine 120.

The user description includes UserProfileType, PersonProfileType, OrganizationProfileType, DeviceProfileType, GroupedProfileType, UsageHistoryTyp, EventType, interactionAtomType, artefactType, observableType, multimediaExperienceType, stateType, PreferenceType, WebLinkPreferenceType, ServicePreferencesType, AudioPresentationPreferencesInfoType, TranslationPreferencesType, EmotionType, VocabularySetType, EmotionGroupType, ScheduleType, ScheduleEventType, ActivityType, IntentionType, LanguageType, LanguageCompetenceReferenceType, CompetenceLevelType, SpecialtyType, AccessibilityType, SocialInformationType and ObjectSharingType.

The UserProfileType describes basic entity information of the user. The semantics of the UserProfileType is shown in Table 1 below.

TABLE 1

Name
Definition

Specialty
Describes a specialty that this group has in

various fields

The PersonProfileType describes a person entity. The PersonProfileType can be used to describe individual basic properties of human being. The semantics of PersonProfileType are shown in Table 2 below.

TABLE 2

Name
Definition

PersonInformationType
Describes basic personal information, including

sex, name, height, weight, blood type, etc.

BirthtimeType
Describes the birthtime.

Language Type
Describe properties of a specific language that

this user can use. May be the native language

of the user and other available source language.

Accessibility
Describes the characteristics of a particular

user's disability, such as visual, hearing,

physical, intellectual or other impairment.

ReleationshipStatusType
Describes the relationship status of the user.

SocialInformationType
Describes information on the social

communities of the user for describing how

the user shares his object with those with a

social relationship.

The semantics of the OrganizationProfileType is shown in Table 3 below.

TABLE 3

Name
Definition

OrganizationInformationType
Describes the information of user's

organization

The DeviceProfileType includes various information on the user device. The semantics of the DeviceProfileType are shown in Table 4 below.

TABLE 4

Name
Definition

DeviceType
Description of the device

capabilities

DeviceCategoryType
Describes the category of device

among predesignated categories.

DeviceIDType
Description of the device

identifier

The GroupedProfileType can be used to describe basic attributes of a group which is a set of users. The semantics of the GroupedProfileType are shown in Table 5 below.

TABLE 5

Name
Definition

UserType
Describes information of a

group's member, (i.e. User Profile, Device

Profile, Organization Profile)

UserRefType
Describes the reference of a

group's member as anyURI

The UsageHistoryType describes the history of actions on specific area by a user, including usage history of media contents, movement of user, pattern in online social network. etc. The semantics of the UsageHistoryType are shown in Table 6 below.

TABLE 6

Name
Definition

MultimediaExperiencesType
Describes the user's multimedia

experience, for example, multimedia

played back by the user in the past.

DetailedUserInteractionType
Structure containing information

about the multimedia experiences of the

user

The EventType describes information on an event. The semantics of the EventType are shown in Table 7 below.

TABLE 7

Name
Definition

startTimeType
The start time of the event

endTimeType
The end time of the event

CoordinatesType
The geolocalization of the event

The interactionAtomType describes observables and artefacts. The semantics of the interactionAtomType are shown in Table 8 below.

TABLE 8

Name
Definition

RoleType
Expresses the functionality of an

interaction atom (e.g. an observable or an

artefact). For example, if the user adds a

text part (artefact) with the intention of

annotating an image (observable), the role

of such text will be “annotation.”

MultimediaObjectType
Any type of data that can be

handled by a device in order to produce

multimedia contents. Multimedia objects

may include the object types of Text,

Image, Video, AudioVisual, Audio,

Application.

CompositionType
Any composition of Artefacts or

Observables

The artefactType describes a specific multimedia object, e.g. tags, annotations, voice, generated or selected by the user while in a specific state.

The observableType describes a specific multimedia object that the user may decide to use. An observable may be any multimedia object visible to the user in a specific state (e.g. an image in the graphic interface). The semantics of the observableType is shown in Table 9 below.

TABLE 9

Name
Definition

UsageEventType
Structure containing information

about when the observable has been

actually used by the user. A specific event

which occurs every time the user decides

to actually use an observable.

The semantics of the multimediaExperienceType is shown in Table 10.

TABLE 10

Name
Definition

StatesType
Describes the states that compose

the multimedia experience

Table 11 shows the semantics of the stateType.

TABLE 11

Name
Definition

ArtefactsType
The artefacts characterizing the

state

ObservablesType
The observables characterizing

the state

SemanticallyRelatedStates
Structure pointing to semantically

related states to the current state.

The PreferenceType describes the preference related to the various services. Table 12 shows the semantics of the PreferenceType.

TABLE 12

Name
Definition

UserPreferencesType
Describes the user's preferences

pertaining to consumption of multimedia

content, in particular, filtering, searching

and browsing of multimedia content.

AudioPresentationPreferencesType
Describes the preferences of a

User regarding the presentation or

rendering or audio resources. May be

defined with

AudioPresentationPreferencesType

defined according to The mpeg7 and

mpeg21.

DisplayPresentationPreferencesType
Describes preferences of a User

regarding the presentation or rendering of

images and videos. May be defined with

DisplayPresentationPreferencesType

defined according to mpeg21.

GraphicsPresentationPreferencesType
Describes presentation

preferences related to graphics media.

May be defined with

GraphicsPresentationPreferencesType

defined according to mpeg21.

ServicePreferenceType
Describes the level of preferences

for specific services.

AudioPresentationPreferencesInfoType
Describes the preferences of a

User regarding the presentation or

rendering or lossless audio resources.

TranslationPreferenceType
Describes the preferences for

translation services.

InterestedMediaType
Describes the media of interest

WebLinkPreferencesType
Describes the preference related

to the various weblinks.

The semantics of the WebLinkPreferencesType are shown in Table 13 below.

TABLE 13

Name
Definition

WebLinkAddressType
Describes the preference related

to the specific weblink

preferenceLevelType
Describes a ranking of the weblink

preference. For example, value ranges

from 0 to 100 and default value is 50

Table 14 shows the semantics of the ServicePreferenceType.

TABLE 14

Name
Definition

ServiceGeneralInformationType
Describes general information of

the service, e.g., service name,

provider name, generic service

information, service URI, service

category and so.

preferenceLevelType
Indicate the priority or weight

assigned to a particular user

preference. For example, the range

of the preference values is from

0 to 100.

The semantics of the AudioPresentationPreferencesInfoType are shown in Table 15.

TABLE 15

Name
Definition

LosslessCreationInfoType
Describes user's preference on

the creating information for lossless

audio.

LosslessAudioFormatType
Describes user's preference on

the format type for lossless audio.

LossyAudioFormatType
Describes user's preference on

the format type for lossy audio.

LosslessAudioFileSizeType
Describes user's preference on

the file size for lossless audio.

AudioMusicPreferenceType
Describes user's preference on

the preference of music for audio.

The semantics of the TranslationPreferencesType are shown in Table 16 below.

TABLE 16

Name
Definition

SourceLanguagePreferenceType
Describes user's preference on

the source language for translation.

TargetLanguagePreferenceType
Describes user's preference on

the target language for translation.

SpeechStylePreferenceType
Describes user's preference on

the style of the translated output

speech.

VoiceGenderPreferenceType
Describes user's preference on

the gender of the translated output

speech.

VoicePitchType
Describes user's preference on

the pitch of the translated output

speech.

VoiceSpeedType
Describes user's preference on

the speed of the translated output

speech.

RequestVariantsType
Describes user's requirement for

language variant.

The EmotionType can be used to represents user's subjective notion and feeling. It can be described user's emotion including its changes over time. The emotion can be acquired by some direct input of user or inference results from sensor data. The semantics of the EmotionType are shown in Table 17.

TABLE 17

Name
Definition

EmotionGroupType
Describes an emotion or some

related information. The emotion

is described by several

EmotionDescription, each being

present with different values

of reliability.

DynamicEmotionVocabularySetType
Describes a dynamic set of

emotion vocabularies. Only

vocabulary names defined in the

declared emotion vocabulary set

of the given element can be used

for representations of emotions.

StaticEmotionVocabularySetType
Describes a static set of emotion

vocabularies.

Other values that are datatype-

valid with respect to

mpeg7:termReferenceType are

reserved.

The DynamicEmotionVocabularySetType can include VocabularySetType to describe the fundamental emotions according to a set of definite criteria. The complete set of vocabularies for representing emotions does not exist. Therefore, the DynamicEmotionVocabularySetType can include vocabulary that can be temporarily used to define the set of emotion vocabularies.

The VocabularySetType can be used to describe the fundamental vocabularies according to a set of definite criteria. The semantics of the VocabularySetType are shown in Table 18.

TABLE 18

Name
Definition

VocabularyType
Describes some information of each

vocabulary which composes the

emotionvocabularyset.

NameType
Describes the name of vocabulary

IdType
Describes the unique id of VocabularySet

Moreover the user description includes EmotionGroupType. The EmotionGroupType can be used to describe and specify detailed information about emotion state of this user according to a specific duration. The semantics of the EmotionGroupType are shown in Table 19.

TABLE 19

Name
Definition

PeriodOfOccurrenceType
Describes the starting and ending

absolute times

EmotionDescriptionType
Describes the specific emotional

state

emotionNameType
Denotes the name of emotion on

the result of measuring a user's emotional

state. The value of “name” must be one of

the predefined vocabularies of emotion-set.

For example, when it comes to defining

“BigSix” as the value for “emotion-set”

attribute of “Emotion Group” element, the

only acceptable values are: [anger, disgust,

fear, happiness, sadness, surprise](refer to

the Bix6 theory made by Paul Ekman)

ValueType
Describes the level of emotion on

the result of measuring a user's emotional

state. This value can be described based on

normalizedRatioValueType.

ReliabilityType
Describes the degree of reliability

on the result of measuring a user's

emotional state. The value of “reliability”

must be a floating point number and cannot

be lower than 0 or greater than 1.

triggeredBy
Describes who and what caused

this emotion. The emotion can be triggered

by such a vehicle as persons, animals and

media.

detectedFrom
Describes the modality where an

emotion is produced. Specific user emotion

is usually detected through human's action

and appearances such as face, gesture,

voice, word, posture and

EEG(electroencephalography).

aspectType
Describes the specific features of

the trigger that causes the emotion. e.g.

battery duration of the Smartphone

emotion-setType
Describes which emotion

vocabularies set shall be used to describe

several emotion descriptions.

Moreover, the user description includes ScheduleType. The ScheduleType represents a plan for events related to the user. Table 20 show the semantics of the ScheduleType.

TABLE 20

Name
Definition

EventType
Describes a specific scheduled

event

Table 21 shows the semantics of the ScheduleEventType.

TABLE 21

Name
Definition

SharedUser
Indicates which users can share

this schedule information.

RecurrenceInfoType
Describes recurrence cycle of an

event.

AlarmTimeType
Describes the alarm time for

scheduled event.

AlarmFormatType
Describes format of alarm such

as visual object, audio object, video

object, text object, image object.

descriptionMethodType
Describes the method how Mpeg-

UD document can acquire this schedule

information.

The semantics of the AcitvityType are shown in Table 22 below.

TABLE 22

Name
Definition

PeriodOfOccurrenceType
Describes a time point or interval

of behaviors such as running, walking,

drinking, watching and so on.

DescriptionType
Describes additional Information

of this activity

ActivityItemType
Describes the activity which user

did

MovingSpeedType
Describes the moving speed of

user. (m/s)

OrientationType
Describes the orientation of the

user

LocationType
Describes the location of the user

PhysicalStateType
Describes the physical state of

user.

HeartbeatType
Indicates heartbeat of user

ECGType
Indicates ECG value of user

RespirationRateType
Indicates Respiration rate of user

BloodPressureType
Indicates blood pressure of user.

(mmHg)

BloodSugarType
Indicates blood sugar of user.

(mg/dl)

The semantics of the IntentionType are shown in Table 23.

TABLE 23

Name
Definition

IntentionObjectIDType
Describes ID of the object for

user's intention.

IntentionObjectFormatType
Describes format of the object

for user's intention such as visual object,

audio object, video object, text object,

image object.

IntentionActionType
Describes user's intention such

as copy, paste, edit and so.

The LanguageType can be used to describe properties of a specific language that this user can use. The semantics of the LanguageType are shown in Table 24 below.

TABLE 24

Name
Definition

NameType
Indicates the name of the

language in which this user can use

CompetenceReferenceType
Describes the competence of the

user

LanguageRegionType
Describes the region of the

language spoken. Ex. British English,

South Korean

Type
Indicates The types of languages.

The types of languages are defined as

follows: (Native - This is the language

that a person has spoken from earliest

childhood; Foreign - This is any other

languages except for the native

language.)

ReadingLevelType
Describes the reading level of the

user for the specific language

WritingLevelType
Describes the writing level of the

user for the specific language

SpeakingLevelType
Describes the speaking level of

the user for the specific language

ListeningLevelType
Describes the listening level of

the user for the specific language

LanguageCompetenceReferenceType describes user's competence for a specific language in the common test. The semantics of LanguageCompetenceReferenceType are shown in Table 25.

TABLE 25

Name
Definition

CompetenceTestNameType
Provides the competence test

name. Ex. TOEFL, IELTS

CompetenceLevelType
Provides the score or level of the

competence test

CompetenceTestURIType
Provides the URI of the

competence test.

Ex.http://www.ets.org/toefl

CompetenceTestDateType
Provides the date of the

competence test taken by the user

The semantics of the CompetenceLevelType are shown in Table 26.

TABLE 26

Name
Definition

FieldScoreType
Indicates the field of test score

maxScoreType
Indicates the max score of test

FieldLevelType
Score or level of the test field

CompetenceFieldType
Indicates the fields of

competence test

Moreover, the user description includes SpecialtyType. The SpecialtyType can be used to describe a value specific to a particular user. The semantics of the SpecialtyType are shown in Table 27.

TABLE 27

Name
Definition

SpecialtyType
Describes a specialty that group

has in various fields.

The AccessibilityType can be used to describe the characteristics of a user's disabilitydisability. The semantics of the AccessibilityType are shown in Table 28.

TABLE 28

Name
Definition

AuditoryImpairmentType
Describes the characteristics of a

particular user's auditory

disabilitydisability. The description

can be used by the audio resource

adaptation engine.

VisualImpairmentType
Describes the characteristics of a

particular user's visual impairment.

Visual Impairment covers a wide range

of conditions. The various forms of

visual impairment include difficulty

to read the fine print, low vision

that cannot be corrected by standard

glasses, total blindness, color

vision disability

BodyImpairmentTypeType
Describes the characteristics of a

user's body disability. May include

AvailabelFingerType, which indicates

the number of available fingers,

ArmType, which indicates the

disability of arms, and LegType,

which indicates the disability of

legs.

LightSensitivityTypeType
Describes the user's Light-

Sensitivity. May include minBlinkType,

which indicates minimum number of

Blinks per second which would cause

any problem to the user, and

maxBlinkType, which indicates

maximum number of Blinks per second

which would cause any problem to

the user.

SexualContentAccessTypeType
Describes the user's preference

on the access control over sexual

content.

ViolenceTypeType
Describes the user's preference

on the access control over contents

with violence.

HorrorTypeType
Describes the user's preference

on the access control over contents

with horror scenes.

GamblingTypeType
Describes if the user allows access

to the contents or services related

to the gambling.

LevelTypeType
Describes the intensity of

expression. May have values of none,

low, middle and high.

SideType
Describes the specific side of

body. May have values of both, left

and right.

SocialInformationType can be used to describe information on the social communities provided by a given service. The semantics of the SocialInformationType are shown in Table 29.

TABLE 29

Name
Definition

ServiceIDType
Describes the service used by the

user

LoginIDType
Describes the login ID of the

user

LoginPasswordType
Describes the password

NicknameType
Describes the nickname of the

user if any.

GroupIDType
Describes the group which the

user belongs to

FriendUserIDType
Describes the list of friends

The semantics of ObjectSharingType are shown in Table 30.

TABLE 30

Name
Definition

ShareUserIDType
Describes the users that shares

the object

ObjectIDType
Describes the ID of the object

OwnershipType
Describes the ownership of the

object

ObjectAccessibilityType
Describes the way object is

accessible. For example, the object may

be open to a specific group, e.g., private,

public, etc., or to everyone.

The service description providing unit 140 stores the service description and provides the service description to the recommendation engine 120. For example, the recommendation engine 120 sends a request for service description to the service description providing unit 140, and the service description providing unit 140 sends the service description according to the request for service description to the recommendation engine 120. The service description may include information on which user is targeted for each service.

The service description includes Service General Description, FormatType, ServiceTargetInformationType, ServiceTargetModelType, VocabularySetType, ServiceInterfaceType, RequiredInputDataType, InternalServicesType, InternalServiceType, LosslessAudioDBType, LossyAudioDBType, VideoDBType, ServiceObjectType and ObjectType.

ServiceGeneralInformationType describes general information about service. The semantics of ServiceGeneralInformationType are shown in Table 31 below.

TABLE 31

Name
Definition

ServiceName
Describes the name of the service.

ServiceProviderName
Describes the name of service provider.

Description
Describes service generic description.

ServiceURI
Describes URI to access information

about the service.

ServiceCategory
Describes the service category using an

MPEG-7 Classification Scheme.

Terms for the ServiceCategory are

specified by the ServiceCategoryCS

(urn:mpeg:mpeg-ud:cs:2014:01-SD-

NS:serviceCategoryCS).

SupportedFormat
Describes media formats of products

provided or consumed by the service.

Moreover, the service description includes FormatType. FormatType specifies media formats supported by the service. All the media types supported by the service shall be listed with this type. Table 32 below shows the semantics of FormatType.

TABLE 32

Name
Definition

MediaFormat
Describes a media format supported by

the service.

The semantics of the ServiceTargetInformationType are shown in Table 33.

TABLE 33

Name
Definition

PreferedUserDescriptionInformation
Describes intended user of

the service using a

UserDescriptionType

specified in MPEG-UD.

PreferedContextDescriptionInformation
Describes intended context

of the service using a

ContextDescriptionType

specified in MPEG-UD.

ServiceTargetModelType
Describes ServiceTargetModel

which has the informational

role of user segmentation.

ServiceTargetModelType includes information corresponding to a decision making model to describe an intention of a specific service provider. Decision making can be regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision making process produces a final choice which can be an action or an opinion of choice. Each service provider has own domain knowledge about every phase of its business, and need to make distinct strategies to try to develop into a highly profitable business. For this, it might be important for service provider to segment users considering usage data and statistical analysis of user for providing target services.

First of all, an approach is proposed to describe a decision tree to represent the decision making model. As mentioned earlier, the structure of service description is proposed, and the service target description, which is the second part in the service description, is proposed. Since one of the purposes of the recommendation description is to suggest proper service according to the user's intention, the service description describes its service target in its description. In this element, a DecisionModel child element, which includes information about a decision model uniquely made by a specific service provider, is newly defined. The semantics of the ServiceTargetModelType are shown in Table 34.

TABLE 34

Name
Definition

serviceTargetTree
Describes decision tree model representing the

specific target user type. Decision tree model

may be based on a publicly available decision

making model.

serviceTargetType
Indicates the specific service target type

related to this decision tree

ServiceTargetSet
Describes a set of user-type vocabularies. Only

vocabulary names defined in the declared user

type set of the given element can be used for

representations of Service Target.

The semantics of the VocabularySetType are shown in Table 35.

TABLE 35

Name
Definition

VocabularyType
Describes a vocabulary of each subscription

level.

NameType
Indicates the name of this vocabulary.

IdType
Identifier of this vocabulary set.

ServiceInterfacesType specifies Service Interfaces provided by the service. Table 36 shows the semantics of ServiceInterfacesType.

TABLE 36

Name
Definition

ServiceInterface
Describes each service interface.

ServiceInterfaceType describes the type the service interface supported by the service using an MPEG-7 Classification Scheme. Terms for the ServiceInterfaceType may be specified by the ServiceInterfaceTypeCS(urn:mpeg:mpeg-ud:cs:2014:01-SD-NS:serviceInterfaceTypeCS). The semantics of the ServiceInterfaceType are shown in Table 37.

TABLE 37

Name
Definition

ServiceInterfaceInformationURI
Designate location (address) of the

service interface information. Service

consumer retrieves information of

service interface with this URI.

Description
Description of provided service

interface.

RequiredInputData
Required input data for service

utilization.

Moreover, the service description includes RequiredInputDataType. RequiredInputDataType specifies what kind of input data is needed to utilize the service. The semantics of RequiredInputDataType are shown in Table 38.

TABLE 38

Name
Definition

CompactUD
Describes part of required user description for service

utilization

CompactCD
Describes part of required context description for

service utilization

InternalServicesType lists internal services within a service. Table 39 shows the semantics of InternalServicesType

TABLE 39

Name
Definition

InternalService
Describes each individual service

within a service.

InternalServiceType specifies each service within a service. The semantics of InternalServiceType are shown in Table 40.

TABLE 40

Name
Definition

InternalServiceType
Type to describe a service within a

service.

ServiceUsagePermission
Describes usage permission for object

created by internal service.

Service
Describes embedded internal service

using ServiceDescriptionType.

ServiceRef
Describes reference of the internal

service that is one of predefined individual

service.

ReferenceServiceID
Describes identifier of the predefined

individual service.

servicePriority
Describes priority of the internal

service. Value ranges from 0 to 100 and

default value is 50.

The semantics of LosslessAudioDBType are shown in Table 41.

TABLE 41

Name
Definition

TitleType
Describes the title of lossless audio

on the database

SingerType
Describes the signer of lossless audio

on the database

AuthorOfMusicType
Describes the author of lossless audio

on the database

KindOfMusicType
Describes the kind of lossless audio

on the database

KindOfFileformatType
Describes the kind of lossless audio

file format on the database

FirstLineOfMusicType
Describes the first line of lossless

audio on the database

AccessHistoryOfUserType
Describes the access history of user

on the database

The semantics of LossyAudioDBType are shown in Table 42.

TABLE 42

Name
Definition

TitleType
Describes the title of lossy audio on

the database

KindOfMusicType
Describes the kind of lossy audio on

the database

KindOfFileformatType
Describes the kind of lossy audio file

format on the database

AccessHistoryOfUserType
Describes the access history of user

access on the database

NetworkOfUserType
Describes the network environment

of user on the database

The semantics of VideoDBType are shown in Table 43.

TABLE 43

Name
Definition

TypeOfMovie
Describes the type of

video on the database

RatingOfVideoType
Describes the rating of

video on the database

XSizeOfVideoType
Describes the X-axis

size of video on the database

YSizeOfVideoType
Describes the Y-axis

size of video on the database

FirstReleasedYearType
Describes the first

released year of video on the

database

OriginalLanguageType
Describes the original

language of video on the

database

The semantics of ServiceObjectType are shown in Table 44 below.

TABLE 44

Name
Definition

ServiceObjectInformationType
Describes the Information of the

objects provided by the service, in

case they are not digital items.

DatabaseOfMultimediaType
Describes the digital items provided

by service.

DatabaseOfMultimediaType
Information about creation metadata

of the recommended digital item,

expressed using MPEG-7 CreationType.

AVSegmentType
A moving region or an audiovisual

segment of the recommended digital

item. To be used in case the

recommended Digital Item is an

audiovisual object.

The semantics of ObjectType are shown in Table 45.

TABLE 45

Name
Definition

ObjectIDType
Describes the ID of the objects.

ObjectNameType
Describes the Name of the objects.

ObjectActivityType
Describes the activity of the object.

ObjectInformationURIType
Describes the information

associated with the object.

ObjectLocationType
Describes the Location of object.

ObjectFormatType
Type for the media formats of the

objects.

The context description providing unit 150 stores the context description and provides the context description to the recommendation engine 120. The context description is information describing the current environment in which the user is situated.

The context description includes ContextDescriptionType, ContextIdentificationType, DeviceCharacteristicsType, NewworkInfoType, LocationType, WeatherType, OtherEnvironmentalInfoType, AudioEnvironment, RecordingEnvironmentType and ContextPriorityType.

The semantics of ContextDescriptionType are shown in Table 46 below.

TABLE 46

Name
Definition

ValidTimeDurationType
Describes valid time duration for

context description.

SeasonType
Specifies current season when a

service is requested.

DeviceCharacteristicsType
Describes general characteristics

of the terminal.

NetworkInfoType
Describes network related

information.

LocationType
Describes current location when

a service is requested. The syntax and

semantics of PlaceType are specified in

ISO/IEC 15938-5.

WeatherType
Describes current weather when a

service is requested.

OtherEnvironmentalInfoType
Describes environmental

information of noise or illumination

characteristics around user.

commonAttributesType
Describes a group of attributes

for the CommonAttributes. The syntax

and semantics of commonAttributes are

identical with Common Type of the

MPEG standard.

PriorityType
Describes the priority of the

context description

OtherContextInfoType
A placeholder for other context -

related information outside the standard

namespace

The semantics of ContextIdentificationType are shown in Table 47.

TABLE 47

Name
Definition

InstanceIdentifier
Describes ID of the Context

sessionIDType
Describes the session ID used by

the Context

The semantics of DeviceCharacteristicsType are shown in Table 48.

TABLE 48

Name
Definition

DeviceCapability
Describes the capabilities of the

terminal in terms of input-output

capabilities and device properties.

DeviceCapability may include

TerminalCapabilityBaseType, of which

the syntax and semantics are specified

in ISO/IEC 21000-7.

SensorDeviceCapabilityListType
Describes the sensor capability of

built-in device.

NetworkInterfaceUnit
Describes device's network unit.

NetworkInterfaceUnit may include

NetworkCapabilityType, of which the

syntax and semantics are specified in

ISO/IEC 21000-7.

DeviceLocationType
Describes the location of the

device.

deviceIDType
Specifies the unique device

identifier.

Availability
Specifies availability of device.

inUseType
Specifies whether device is

currently in use.

operatingSystemType
Describes the operating system

used by the device

VersionType
Describes the version of the

operating system/device

NetworkInfoType describes the static and dynamic information of the available network around user. The semantics of NetworkInfoType are shown in Table 49.

TABLE 49

Name
Definition

NetworkCapabilityType
Describes static information of

network around user. The syntax and

semantics of NetworkCapabilityType are

specified in ISO/IEC 21000-7.

NetworkConditionType
Describes dynamic information for

network around user. The syntax and

semantics of NetworkConditionType are

specified in ISO/IEC 21000-7.

NetworkedType
Specifies the unique network

identifier.

InUseType
Specifies whether device is

currently in use.

Moreover, the context description includes LocationType. The semantics of LocationType are shown in Table 50.

TABLE 50

Name
Definition

LocationType
Describes user's geographical

location.

SemanticLocationType
Describes the semantic location

of the user.

WeatherType include Temperature, Precipitation, wind and Humidity elements. The semantics of WeatherType are shown in Table 51.

TABLE 51

Name
Definition

TemperatureType
Describes the temperature. May be

described with TemperatureSensorType, of

which the syntax and semantics are

specified in ISO/IEC 23005-5.

PrecipitationType
Describes the precipitation during

the specified period of time as defined by

the duration attribute in the default unit of

millimeter or in the unit specified by the

valueUnit attribute.

ValueType
Specifies the precipitation in the

default unit of millimeter or in the unit

specified by the valueUnit attribute.

valueUnitType
Specifies the unit of the

precipitation value, if a unit other than the

default unit is used, as a reference to a

classification scheme term provided by

UnitTypeCS defined in A.2.1 of ISO/IEC

23005-6 using the

mpeg7:termReferenceType defined in 7.6 of

ISO/IEC 15938-5.

DurationType
Specifies the time period up to the

time of measuring the precipitation in the

default unit of hour or in the unit specified

by durationUnit attribute.

durationUnitType
Specifies the unit of the duration, if

a unit other than the default unit is used, as a

reference to a classification scheme term

provided by UnitTypeCS defined in A.2.1

of ISO/IEC 23005-6 using the

mpeg7:termReferenceType defined in 7.6 of

ISO/IEC 15938-5.

Formation
Specifies the formation of the

precipitation.

WindType
Describes the strength and the

direction of the wind. The syntax and

semantics of VelocitySensorType are

specified in ISO/IEC 23005-5

DirectionType
Specifies the direction of the wind

coming from, as a reference to a

classification scheme term provided by

WindDirectionTypeCS defined in Annex

B.8 using the mpeg7:termReferenceType

defined in 7.6 of ISO/IEC 15938-5.

HumidityType
Describes the humidity. The syntax

and semantics of HumiditySensorType are

specified in ISO/IEC 23005-5.

The semantics of OtherEnvironmentalInfoType are shown in Table 52.

TABLE 52

Name
Definition

AudioEnvironmentType
Describes the user's audio

environment.

IlluminationCharacteristicsType
Describes the overall illumination

characteristics of the natural

environment. The syntax and semantics

of IlluminationCharacteristicsType are

specified in ISO/IEC 21000-7.

The semantics of AudioEnvironmentType are shown in Table 53.

TABLE 53

Name
Definition

RecordingEnvironmentType
Describes the Recording audio

environment of a particular User.

ListeningEnvironmentType
Describes the Listening audio

environment of a particular User.

The semantics of RecordingEnvironmentType are shown in Table 54.

TABLE 54

Name
Definition

HowlingLevelType
Indicates the Howling level

measured as SPL in dB for a microphone

of the terminal.

NumberOfMicType
Indicates the integer parameter

for the number of microphones.

The semantics of ContextPriorityType are shown in Table 55.

TABLE 55

Name
Definition

ContextIDType
Indicates ID of the context.

PriorityType
Describes the priority of the

context description.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram showing how the apparatus for recommending a service recommends a service in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Although the steps described below are performed by their respective functional units, which constitute the apparatus 100 for recommending a service, these functional units will be collectively referred to as the apparatus 100 for recommending a service for the convenience of description and understanding.

Referring to FIG. 2, in step 210, the apparatus 100 for recommending a service receives a request for recommendation of a service from the service providing apparatus 50.

In step 220, the apparatus 100 for recommending a service obtains a user description, a service description and a context description corresponding to the request for recommendation of a service. For example, the apparatus 100 for recommending a service may request the user description providing unit 130, the service description providing unit 140 and the context description providing unit 150 for the user description, the service description and the context description, respectively, and obtain the user description, the service description and the context description, respectively. Here, the user description may includeUserProfileType, PersonProfileType, OrganizationProfileType, DeviceProfileType, GroupedProfileType, UsageHistoryTyp, EventType, interactionAtomType, artefactType, observableType, multimediaExperienceType, stateType, PreferenceType, WebLinkPreferenceType, ServicePreferencesType, AudioPresentationPreferencesInfoType, TranslationPreferencesType, EmotionType, VocabularySetType, EmotionGroupType, ScheduleType, ScheduleEventType, ActivityType, IntentionType, LanguageType, LanguageCompetenceReferenceType, CompetenceLevelType, SpecialtyType, AccessibilityType, SocialInformationType and ObjectSharingType.

In step 230, the apparatus 100 for recommending a service generates a recommendation description corresponding to the user description, the service description and the context description. For example, the apparatus 100 for recommending a service may generate the recommendation description based on a pattern available in the MPEG-UD standard and the like.

In step 240, the apparatus 100 for recommending a service sends the recommendation description to the service providing apparatus 50. Therefore, the service providing apparatus 50 may provide a service that is suitable for the user by referring to the recommendation description.

The apparatus 100 for recommending a service in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention may be implemented in a computer system.

FIG. 3 illustrates the computer system implemented with the apparatus for recommending a service in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

An embodiment of the present invention may be implemented as, for example, a computer-readable recording medium, in a computer system. As shown in FIG. 3, a computer system 300 may include one or more of a processor 310, a memory 320, a storage 330, a user interface input unit 340, and a user interface output unit 350, each of which communicates through a bus 360. The computer system 300 may also include a network interface 370 that is coupled to a network. The processor 310 may be a central processing unit (CPU) or a semiconductor device that executes processing instructions stored in the memory 320 and/or the storage 330. The memory 320 and the storage 330 may include various forms of volatile or non-volatile storage media. For example, the memory may include a read-only memory (ROM) 324 and a random access memory (RAM) 325.

Hitherto, certain embodiments of the present invention have been described, and it shall be appreciated that a large number of permutations and modifications of the present invention are possible without departing from the intrinsic features of the present invention by those who are ordinarily skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. Accordingly, the disclosed embodiments of the present invention shall be appreciated in illustrative perspectives, rather than in restrictive perspectives, and the scope of the technical ideas of the present invention shall not be restricted by the disclosed embodiments. The scope of protection of the present invention shall be interpreted through the claims appended below, and any and all equivalent technical ideas shall be interpreted to be included in the claims of the present invention.

Number	Date	Country	Kind
10-2014-0034388	Mar 2014	KR	national
10-2014-0034391	Mar 2014	KR	national
10-2014-0034395	Mar 2014	KR	national
10-2015-0032779	Mar 2015	KR	national
10-2015-0032783	Mar 2015	KR	national
10-2015-0032785	Mar 2015	KR	national

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR RECOMMENDING SERVICE

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