Patent Application
20150040004
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2013-161326, filed on Aug. 2, 2013; the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Embodiments described herein relate generally to a display control device, a display control method, and a computer program product.
While going out for travel, shopping, or other occasions, you may have interest in more detailed information about a visited place, word of mouth about a restaurant that you happened to find, or detailed information on new merchandise found during shopping, for example. Recent proliferation of personal digital assistants such as smartphones can provide a certain amount of information on the spot even away from home. However, only limited information is usually obtained on the spot due to time constraints or other reasons.
After coming home, you may also look back and enjoy the things you experienced while you were out. For example, you may look back to the events experienced when you were out by looking at the photographs taken during the events, the brochures obtained during the events, or the like. However, even if you are interested on the spot in places of which photographs are forgotten to be taken, events or new merchandise happened to be encountered, or the like, you may forget them after coming home. A technique is known such as a device with which a user can check information relevant to the information encountered while the user is out, after coming home.
However, in conventional techniques, the user needs to specify information the user is interested in, in advance in a device, leading to cumbersome operation for displaying the information.
According to an embodiment, a display control device includes an acquisition unit, a selector, and a controller. The acquisition unit is configured to acquire position log information and activity log information, the position log information including pieces of position information that each indicate a position of a user and pieces of first time information that each indicate the time when the piece of position information is detected, the activity log information including pieces of activity information that each indicate activity of the user and pieces of second time information that each indicate the time when the corresponding piece of activity information is detected. The selector is configured to acquire display condition information in which combinations of the pieces of position information and the pieces of activity information are associated with pieces of display information to be displayed on a display device, respectively, specify a combination of a piece of position information included in the position log information and a piece of activity information associated with the time corresponding to the piece of position information in the activity log information, from among the combinations of the pieces of position information and the pieces of activity information in the display condition information, and select the piece of display information corresponding to the specified combination. The controller is configured to control to display the selected piece of display information on the display device.
Embodiments will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The display control device 10 includes a user recognition unit 11, an acquisition unit 12, a storage 13, a selector 14, and a controller 15. The user recognition unit 11 recognizes a user viewing the display information on the display device 20. A method for utilizing a camera will be described as an example of a method for recognizing the user by the user recognition unit 11.
Referring back to
The position log information will be described.
The acquisition of the position information through the GPS is not limited to a method of utilizing the function of a personal digital assistant carried by the user. For example, the function of the GPS may also be integrated in an accessory such as a watch worn by the user. Furthermore, the acquisition of the position information is not limited to a method of utilizing the GPS. The position information of a user may also be acquired by, instead of utilizing the GPS, utilizing a known human detection technology or similar technologies to detect the user from images taken by cameras installed in public spaces, for example.
The activity log information is described.
Referring back to
The acquisition unit 12 may also acquire the position log information and the activity log information, not from the terminal 30, but from a data server on the Internet 40, a home data storage device, or the like. For example, the position log information and the activity log information may be transmitted from the terminal 30 carried by the user to a data server on the Internet 40 whenever necessary. The acquisition unit 12 may also acquire the position log information and the activity log information from the data server.
The storage 13 stores therein information in the terminal 30 of the user, the Internet, and the like as display information. The selector 14 selects the display information to be displayed on the display device 20 from the storage 13 on the basis of the position information in the position log information and the activity information in the activity log information. The following describes display condition information used by the selector 14 to select the display information on the basis of the position information in the position log information and the activity information in the activity log information.
The following describes a case where the selector 14 selects the display information from the storage 13 on the basis of the position log information, the activity log information, and the display condition information listed in
When the activity information in the display condition information is related to visit duration indicating the period of stay at the place, the selector 14 specifies the activity information related to the visit duration from the time information and the position information in the position log information.
The selector 14 also creates display candidate information including candidates to be displayed on the display device 20 when plural pieces of display information can be selected.
TOURIST SITE B DETAILED INFORMATION will be described. The selector 14 estimates from the time information and the position information in the position log information in
PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY USER AT TOURIST SITE B will be described as an example. The selector 14 estimates from the time information and the position information in the position log information in
Referring back to
The selector 14 selects display information such as TOURIST SITE DETAILED INFORMATION and WORD-OF-MOUTH INFORMATION ON RESTAURANT. However, when the display information does not exist in the storage 13, the display control unit 10 acquires the display information from the Internet 40.
The controller 15 controls to display the display information received from the selector 14 on the display device 20.
The selector 14 determines whether the combination of the position information in the position log information and the activity information in the activity log information exists on which the determination of display information to be displayed on the display device 20 is unprocessed (Step S5). If the unprocessed combination exists (Yes at Step S5), the system returns to Step S3. If no unprocessed combination exists (No at Step S5), the display information to be displayed is selected from the display candidate information in descending order of priority, based on the priority of the display candidate information (Step S6). The controller 15 then controls to display the display information selected at Step S6 on the display device 20 (Step S7).
In the display control device 10 of the present embodiment, the selector 14 selects the display information based on the position information and the activity information. The display control device 10 thus allows the display device 20 to display the display information in which the user is interested even when the user specifies no display information in advance.
The following elaborates on the activity information indicating user activity. The user activity includes various types of patterns, for example, walking, stopping, sitting, lying, having a meal, picking up merchandise, taking a photograph, listening to music, and browsing or searching for a web site. The present embodiment describes a method for specifying the user activity from the log of the applications of the terminal 30, but the method using the application log information is not limiting. Any method for specifying the user activity may be used.
Activity performed without applications installed in the terminal 30, such as walking, stopping, sitting, lying, having a meal, and picking up merchandise can also be acquired by known activity recognition techniques, for example. A technique with GPS and an acceleration sensor is known to identify walking, running, stopping, or riding in a vehicle or the like outdoors, for example. A technique is also known to specify activity such as having a meal and sleeping from signal patterns acquired by using a microphone or a plurality of sensors such as a pulse wave sensor, for example. A technique is also known to recognize a user by known human detection technology and facial recognition technology using images taken by cameras installed in public spaces and to specify user activity by known activity recognition techniques using the images, for example.
The user activity with the terminal 30 can also be specified in more detail by collecting the load and save histories of content, a web site browsing log, and the like in the terminal 30 while collecting the activity log information using the log of the applications of the terminal 30.
Modification of First Embodiment
A modification of the first embodiment will now be described. The display control device 10 of the modification of the first embodiment specifies user activity not only from histories (position log information and activity log information) but also from information indicating a user's schedule. The information indicating a user's schedule (called “activity schedule information”, hereinafter) is, for example, information on an application for managing a schedule, installed in the terminal 30. The acquisition unit 12 further receives the activity schedule information in addition to the position log information and the activity log information from the terminal 30. The selector 14 selects display information based on, besides the position log information and the activity log information, the activity schedule information. For example, the selector 14 selects display information including information indicating the weather of a travel destination in view of information indicating the schedule for the travel (information such as dates and times and places) in the activity schedule information. The display control device 10 acquires the information from the Internet 40 when the storage 13 contains no information indicating the weather of the travel destination.
The selector 14 of the display control device 10 in the present modification selects the display information based on the position information, the activity information, and the activity schedule information, and thus acquires not only information about past user activity but also information about future scheduled activity of the user. This allows the display control device 10 in the present modification to select display information in which the user has a high interest on the basis of the user's schedule.
The display control device 10 of the second embodiment will now be described. The display control device 10 of the second embodiment differs from the configuration of the display control device 10 of the first embodiment in further including a place recognition unit 16 and a state recognition unit 17. Descriptions of the present embodiment that are the same as that of the first embodiment are omitted.
The place recognition unit 16 receives a static image or a picture taken by the camera 21 and recognizes the installation place of the display device 20 from the static image or the picture. The place recognition unit 16 then determines place information indicating the recognized place. The place information indicates, for example, the type of room such as a living room, a kitchen, a lavatory, and an entrance hall. A method for determining the place information of the display device 20 can include various types of known environment estimation techniques, for example, a method including recognizing the wall pattern of the room and the type of surrounding objects by taking the static image or the picture of the surroundings of the display device 20 by the camera 21, and estimating the place information on the basis of the recognition. For example, the place recognition unit 16 determines the place information as KITCHEN when the installation place of the recognized display device 20 is a kitchen.
The state recognition unit 17 receives the static image or the picture taken by the camera 21 and recognizes the state of the user in the capture range of the camera 21 of the display device 20, from the static image or the picture. The state recognition unit 17 then determines state information indicating the recognized user state. The state information indicates, for example, a user state such as SITTING STATE, WORKING STATE, or LYING STATE. A method for determining the user state can employ, for example, a posture recognition technique to specify the posture of a person by extracting the person from an image taken by the camera 21 and comparing the person to model data corresponding to postures of persons stored in advance. WORKING STATE can be recognized by, for example, obtaining interframe differences from time-series images taken by the camera 21 to detect an active area.
Referring back to
Referring back to
The selector 14 may also determine the type of the display information of which priority is to be changed based on either the place information or the state information. For example, in the priority change information in
The display control device 10 in the present embodiment selects the display information to be displayed on the display device 20 in further consideration of the place information and the state information. This allows the display control device 10 in the present embodiment to select the display information more appropriately than the display control device 10 in the first embodiment, depending on the installation environment of the display device 20 and the user state.
The following elaborates on the selection example of the appropriate display information. For example, when a user watches the display device 20 while cooking in a kitchen, it is considered to be useful for the user to allow the display device 20 to preferentially display the recipe on the Internet 40 or information on purchased food materials checked by the user using a browser application in the terminal 30 when the user was out. The selector 14 of the display control device 10 in the present embodiment increases the priority of the display information of which the type is COOKING in the display condition information when the place information is KITCHEN and the state information is WORKING STATE.
It is also conceivable that even when a user watches the display device 20 in a living room, information to be displayed is changed depending on the user state, for example. When a user watches the display device 20 while sitting on a sofa, for example, the user is thought to watch the content on the display device 20 relatively intensely. It is then conceivable to display, for example, detailed information on the tourist site visited by the user. The selector 14 of the display control device 10 in the present embodiment thus increases the priority of the display information of which the type is SIGHTSEEING in the display condition information when the place information is LIVING ROOM and the state information is SITTING STATE.
In contrast, even when a user watches the display device 20 in a living room, if the user watches the display device 20 while lying, the display device 20 displays content such as photographs taken when going out that can be enjoyed without much concentration on the display 22 so that the user is in a more comfortable fashion. The selector 14 of the display control device 10 in the present embodiment increases the priority of the display information of which the type is PHOTOGRAPHS in the display condition information when the place information is LIVING ROOM and the state information is LYING STATE.
As described above, according to the first and the second embodiments, the display device 20 is allowed to display the display information in which the user has an interest even when the user specifies no display information in advance.
Finally, the following describes the main hardware configuration of each of the display control devices 10 of the first and the second embodiments.
The control device 51 executes a computer program read from the auxiliary storage device 54 to the main storage device 53. The main storage device 53 is a memory such as a read only memory (ROM) and a random access memory (RAM). The auxiliary storage device 54 is, for example, a hard disk. The communication device 52 is an interface that connects to a network.
The computer program executed by the display control devices 10 of the first and the second embodiments may also be provided as a computer program product by recording the program in a recording medium readable by a computer, such as a compact disc-read-only memory (CD-ROM), a memory card, a CD recordable (CD-R), and a digital versatile disc (DVD) in an installable or executable file format. The computer program executed by the display control devices 10 of the first and the second embodiments may also be provided by storing it in a computer connected to a network such as the Internet and downloading it through the network. The computer program executed by the display control devices 10 of the first and the second embodiments may also be provided or distributed through a network such as the Internet without downloading it. The computer program executed by the display control devices 10 of the first and the second embodiments may also be provided by pre-installing it in a ROM or the like in the display control device 10.
The computer program executed by the display control devices 10 of the first and the second embodiments has a module configuration including functional blocks (the user recognition unit 11, the acquisition unit 12, the selector 14, the controller 15, the place recognition unit 16, and the state recognition unit 17) executable also as a computer program, among functional blocks of the display control device 10 described above.
In an actual hardware, the control device 51 reads a computer program from the recording medium and executes it, and then, each of the modules is loaded on the main storage device 53. Specifically, each module is generated in the main storage device 53. A part or all of the functional blocks of each display control device 10 of the first and the second embodiments may also be implemented by hardware such as an integrated circuit (IC) without implementing it by a computer program.
While certain embodiments have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the inventions. Indeed, the novel embodiments described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the embodiments described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the inventions. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of the inventions.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-161326 | Aug 2013 | JP | national |
