Patent Application
20170199918
The present disclosure relates to an information processing device, a control method, and a program.
With recent developments in information communication technology, various kinds of content including restaurant information, product information, event information, news, music, video, or electronic books have been provided for users through networks. Retrieval service including keyword or genre retrieval is provided to support users who retrieve information suitable for the users from these vast amounts of content, and recommendation service is provided for recommending content suitable for users through a system.
For extraction of the attributes of content used in the retrieval service and recommendation service, for example, a significance calculation method is proposed in Patent Literature 1 in which the degrees of significance of various attribute combinations are flexibly evaluated from the attributes of content.
Patent Literature 1: JP 2011-175362A
Although a display format is quite a significant factor for presenting various kinds of content to users, conventional information recommendation has focused on only the contents of presented information, but has not taken display formats into consideration.
For example, if the text of presented information is fully displayed, it takes a long time to recognize the whole information. Thus, displaying only a list of titles or outlines is more convenient to a user in a hurry. If there is adequate time, displaying not only text, but also images allows a user to more specifically recognize the contents, achieving high convenience.
Accordingly, the present disclosure proposes an information processing device, a control method, and a program that can determine the granularity of information at the presentation of the information in accordance with a user status.
According to the present disclosure, there is provided an information processing device including: a retrieval unit that retrieves information in response to a request of a user; an acquisition unit that acquires information on a current user status; a determination unit that determines granularity of information according to the acquired information on the user status when the retrieved information is presented; and a presentation control unit that controls presentation of the retrieved information with the determined granularity of information.
According to the present disclosure, there is provided a control method including: retrieving information in response to a request of a user; acquiring information on a current user status; determining granularity of information according to the acquired information on the user status when the retrieved information is presented; and controlling presentation of the retrieved information with the determined granularity of information.
According to the present disclosure, there is provided a program for causing a computer to function as: a retrieval unit that retrieves information in response to a request of a user; an acquisition unit that acquires information on a current user status; a determination unit that determines granularity of information according to the acquired information on the user status when the retrieved information is presented; and a presentation control unit that controls presentation of the retrieved information with the determined granularity of information.
As described above, the present disclosure can determine the granularity of presented information in accordance with a user status.
Note that the effects described above are not necessarily limitative. With or in the place of the above effects, there may be achieved any one of the effects described in this specification or other effects that may be grasped from this specification.
Hereinafter, (a) preferred embodiment(s) of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the appended drawings. In this specification and the appended drawings, structural elements that have substantially the same function and structure are denoted with the same reference numerals, and repeated explanation of these structural elements is omitted.
The description will be made in the following order.
1. The outline of a control system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure
2. Basic configuration
2-1. Sever configuration
2-2. Client configuration
3. Action processing
Referring to
The server 1 retrieves various kinds of content including restaurant information, product information, event information, news, music, video, or electronic books in response to a request of the client 2, and presents the retrieved information to the client 2.
Although, in conventional retrieval service and recommendation service, a display format is quite a significant factor for presenting various kinds of content to users, conventional information recommendation has focused on only the contents of presented information, but has not taken display formats into consideration.
Thus, in the present embodiment, the current user status can be acquired when retrieved information is presented, and then the granularity of the information can be determined at the presentation of the information according to the user status.
Specifically, referring to the granularity of information associated (defined) with a context indicating information on a user status, the server 1 determines the granularity (display format) of information including the amount of display, a detail level, or a display type when retrieved information is presented.
The outline of the control system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure has been described above. The basic configurations of the server 1 and the client 2 in the control system of the present embodiment will be discussed below.
The control unit 10 is composed of a microcomputer including, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a nonvolatile memory, and an interface unit. The control unit 10 controls the components of the server 1. Specifically, as shown in
Retrieval Unit
In response to a retrieval (or recommendation) request from the client 2, the retrieval unit 10a retrieves information to be presented to a user from the information DB 13. The retrieval request may be made for retrieval based on an explicit user instruction (e.g., a keyword retrieval request or an image retrieval request) or for context retrieval for estimating information to be retrieved based on a status. In the case of context retrieval, for example, the retrieval unit 10a retrieves information with reference to correspondences between contexts and retrieval information (preference for retrieval information) shown in
In the present embodiment, as shown in
User-Status Information Acquisition Unit
The user-status information acquisition unit 10b acquires user status information from the client 2. The user status information indicates, for example, at least one of a current time/date/location (user's current location), the number of persons accompanying a user, the relationship with an accompanying person, the attribute of an accompanying person, a status, an action, daily life, and a device used. In the present specification, the user status information will be referred to as contexts.
Display-Format Determination Unit
The display-format determination unit 10c determines a display format (that is, the granularity of information) for presenting information retrieved by the retrieval unit 10a to the client 2, according to the context, the genre of retrieved information, or the type of the device used (the client 2 who receives the presented information). In the present specification, the display format includes the amount of presented information (e.g., the number of presented retrieval results), a detail level (e.g., at least one of a title, an outline, and a full text to be presented), or a display type (at least one of a text and an image to be presented).
Specifically, the display-format determination unit 10c determines a display format associated (defined) beforehand with a context and so on. Thus, the server 1 of the present embodiment can present desired information to a user in a more suitable display format for the needs of the user.
As shown in
Moreover, when a user “is riding a train” or “standing,” the display format is changed to “summary list display” that allows quick confirmation. When a user “is sitting,” the display format is changed to “full-text display” that allows detailed confirmation. During restaurant information retrieval, a user is likely to identify the feature of a restaurant “in a familiar location” with a small amount of information and thus the display format is changed to “summary list display.” Alternatively, “in the first location” or “an unfamiliar location,” the display format is changed to “list display with pictures.”
Furthermore, in restaurant information retrieval, if an accompanying person “is interested in pictures,” the display format is changed to “picture display,” whereas if an accompanying person “is interested in contents,” the display format is changed to “detail-only display.” If the client 2 (device used), to which information is presented, is “cellular phone terminal or smartphone,” it is assumed that the client 2 has a relatively small display area. Thus, the display format is changed to “restaurant summary list-only display.” If the client 2 is “tablet terminal,” it is assumed that the client 2 has a relatively large display area and thus the display format is changed to “picture display.”
Referring to
Presentation Control Unit
The presentation control unit 10d controls information retrieved by the retrieval unit 10a so as to present the information to the client 2 in the display format determined by the display-format determination unit 10c. Specifically, the presentation control unit 10d controls the communication unit 11 so as to transmit a control signal to the client 2. The control signal provides an instruction to present the information retrieved by the retrieval unit 10a, in the display format determined by the display-format determination unit 10c.
The communication unit 11 has the function of transmitting and receiving data via a wired or wireless connection to an external device. For example, the communication unit 11 of the present embodiment is connected to the client 2, receives a retrieval request containing a context, and transmits the control signal that provides an instruction to present retrieval results in a predetermined display format under the control of the presentation control unit 10d.
Various kinds of content to be presented to a user, for example, content including restaurant information, product information, event information, news, music, video, or electronic books are stored in the information DB 13.
(Context display format DB 14)
The context display format DB 14 contains reference data for determining display formats according to contexts and so on by the display-format determination unit 10c. Specifically, the reference data indicates, as will be discussed later, correspondences between contexts and display formats shown in
An operation history based on feedback from users is stored in the user information DB 15.
The specific configuration of the server 1 according to the present embodiment has been described above. Referring to
Referring to
In
Referring to the correspondence data of
Moreover, the display-format determination unit 10c of the present embodiment may determine the display formats based on retrieval information as well as the contexts. The determination will be specifically described below with reference to
In
Referring to the correspondence data of
Referring to
For example, a title list display 30 in the left part of
A title-image list display 32 in the left part of
A detailed information-image display 34 in the left part of
Examples of “split view” include “two horizontally split views (for cellular phone terminals/smartphones) 36 in the left part of
Referring to
As shown in
As shown in
The determination of the display format according to a context and so on has been specifically described above with reference to the specific examples according to the present embodiment.
Referring to
As shown in
The CPU 21 includes, for example, a microcomputer and controls the components of the client 2. For example, the CPU 21 functions as a display control unit that controls the operation display unit 26, which will be discussed later, so as to display retrieval information in a specified display format in response to the control signal transmitted from the server 1 through the communication I/F 25.
The ROM 22 contains programs used by the CPU 21 and control data including an operation parameter. The RAM 23 temporarily contains, for example, programs executed by the CPU 21.
The storage unit 24 contains various kinds of data. For example, the storage unit 24 can temporarily contain retrieval information transmitted from the server 1 through the communication I/F 25 and an instruction of a display format.
The communication I/F 25 is communication means included in the client 2 and communicates through the network 4 (or directly) with an external device included in the control system of the present embodiment. For example, the communication I/F 25 is wirelessly connected to the base station 3. The communication I/F 25 transmits a retrieval request including a context and information on a device used, to the server 1 on the network 4 through the base station 3.
The operation display unit 26 has an operation input function and a display function. The operation input function is specifically implemented by a touch sensor for receiving an operational input to a display screen. The display function is implemented by, for example, a liquid crystal display (LCD) or an organic light-emitting diode (OLED). On the display screen, retrieval information is displayed in a specified display format under the control of the CPU 21 (
The context identification unit 27 identifies contexts (specifically, information on a user status) and so on that are transmitted with a retrieval request to the server 1, based on various sensors.
As shown in
Furthermore, the context identification unit 27 identifies “user status/action” based on sensor information obtained by various sensors (e.g., the position information acquisition sensor, an acceleration sensor, a geomagnetism sensor, or a gyro sensor) included in the device. Specifically, the context identification unit 27 identifies whether a user is standing, sitting, walking, riding on a bicycle, or riding a train, based on the sensor information.
Moreover, the context identification unit 27 identifies “daily life” by comparing an ordinary user action pattern with an action model. Specifically, the context identification unit 27 acquires a current user action (a position or time) via the GPS and so on, and then compares the user action with the ordinary action model to identify whether the current user action is similar (ordinary) or dissimilar (extraordinary) to the ordinary action model.
The context identification unit 27 identifies “accompanying person” based on a user attribute obtained from the device of an accompanying person through communication with other devices near the context identification unit 27 via Bluetooth (registered trademark), infrared communication, Wi-Fi (registered trademark), or proximity wireless communication of the device. Specifically, the context identification unit 27 identifies the attribute of the accompanying person and the relationship between the accompanying person and the user based on the user attribute obtained from the device of the accompanying person.
Moreover, the context identification unit 27 identifies “device used” from the device information of the device. Specifically, the context identification unit 27 identifies the type of the device 2 (a cellular phone terminal, a smartphone, or a tablet terminal) based on device information stored in the storage unit 24.
The configurations of the server 1 and the client 2 that are included in the control system according to the present embodiment have been specifically described above. The configurations of the server 1 and the client 2 are merely exemplary and thus do not limit the present disclosure. For example, the client 2 may include at least a part of the configuration of the server 1.
Referring to
Subsequently, in step S106, the user-status information acquisition unit 10b of the server 1 acquires information (context) on a user status included in the retrieval request.
After that, in step S109, the retrieval unit 10a retrieves information in response to the retrieval request.
Subsequently, in step S112, the display-format determination unit 10c determines the display format of information to be presented, according to the user status (context). In this example, the display format is determined according to the user status. As described above, the display-format determination unit 10c can also determine the display format according to (the genre of) retrieval information or the type of device to which the information is presented, in addition to the user status.
After that, in step S115, the presentation control unit 115 transmits the control signal to the client, the control signal providing an instruction to present retrieval results in the display format determined by the display-format determination unit 10c.
The configuration and action processing of the control system according to the present embodiment have been specifically described above. In the specific examples of
Thus, a modification of the present embodiment proposes that a context type or a context is provided with a priority score beforehand to resolve the contradiction according to the priority score. In the following explanation, the contradiction is resolved in various ways according to priority scores. In the present specification, the priority scores will also be referred to as scores.
First, a scoring method for each context type is proposed as variation 1.
In this case, if the contexts of “in train” and “two or more persons” are obtained from a retrieval request transmitted from the client 2, “in train” is associated with “information list/no image” and “two or more persons” is associated with “detailed information/image display” as shown in
If the contexts of “in train,” “two or more persons,” and “night” are obtained from a retrieval request transmitted from the client 2, “in train” is associated with “information list/no image” while “two or more persons” and “night” are associated with “detailed information/image display,” resulting in contradiction. In this case, the context type “location” for “in train” has a score of “2.0” that is lower than the sum of the score “1.5” of the contradictory context type of “the number of accompanying persons” for “two or more persons” and the score “0.7” of the context type of “time” for “night” (2.0<1.5+0.7). Thus, the display-format determination unit 10c determines that the display format is to be “detailed information/image display” associated with “two or more persons” and “night.”
A scoring method for each context is proposed as variation 2.
In this case, if the contexts of “in train” and “two or more persons” are obtained from a retrieval request transmitted from the client 2, the display formats are contradictory to each other (
If the contexts of “in train,” “two or more persons,” and “night” are obtained from a retrieval request transmitted from the client 2, the display formats of “in train,” “two or more persons,” and “night” are contradictory to one another (
A method for scoring of each context and permission of the addition of multiple scores is proposed as variation 2′.
In this case, if the contexts of “in train” and “two or more persons” are obtained from a retrieval request transmitted from the client 2, the display formats are contradictory to each other (
A method of categorizing the display formats and adding a score to each category is proposed as variation 3.
In
In this method, if the contexts of “in train,” “two or more persons,” and “night” are obtained from a retrieval request transmitted from the client 2, the display formats of “in train,” “two or more persons,” and “night” are contradictory to one another (
As in variation 2′, multiple scores may be added to each of the categories.
The examples of display format categories are not limited to “detail level” or “image” and may include, for example, “the number of displays (amount of display)” (1, 2, 3, . . . ), “display area” (e.g., a full screen, a right half, or only a status bar), and “additional information” (e.g., scoreboard or stock price information). In the category of “detail level,” “title only,” “summary only,” or “title/summary” may be defined as the display contents of the information list and “full-text display” may be defined as the display contents of detailed information.
The values of the priority scores in
Although the above-described priority scores are added beforehand, the control unit 10 of the server 1 according to the present embodiment may change the priority scores according to user feedback obtained from the client 2. This will be specifically described below with reference to
In this case, the control unit 10 of the server 1 changes the priority score. Specifically, the control unit 10 adds “−0.1” to the display format before the user changes the display format, whereas the control unit 10 adds “+0.1” to the display format after the user changes the display format.
In a correction of the priority score in variation 1, before a change of the display format, the display format is “information list/no image” (
As described above, the priority scores are changed according to user feedback. The priority scores may be generated beforehand based on operation histories of a user which are accumulated in the user information DB 15.
As described above, when retrieved information is presented, the control system according to the embodiment of the present disclosure can obtain the current user status and determine the granularity of presented information according to the user status.
The preferred embodiment(s) of the present disclosure has/have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, whilst the present disclosure is not limited to the above examples. A person skilled in the art may find various alterations and modifications within the scope of the appended claims, and it should be understood that they will naturally come under the technical scope of the present disclosure.
For example, computer programs having the functions of the server 1 and the client 2 can be generated in hardware such as a CPU, ROM, and RAM included in the server 1 and the client 2. There is also provided a computer-readable storage medium having the computer programs stored therein.
The correspondence of the display formats is not limited to the foregoing examples. For example, “two or more persons” is associated with “detailed information/image display” in
Further, the effects described in this specification are merely illustrative or exemplified effects, and are not limitative. That is, with or in the place of the above effects, the technology according to the present disclosure may achieve other effects that are clear to those skilled in the art based on the description of this specification.
Additionally, the present technology may also be configured as below.
(1)
An information processing device including:
a retrieval unit that retrieves information in response to a request of a user;
an acquisition unit that acquires information on a current user status;
a determination unit that determines granularity of information according to the acquired information on the user status when the retrieved information is presented; and
a presentation control unit that controls presentation of the retrieved information with the determined granularity of information.
(2)
The information processing device according to (1), wherein the granularity of information includes an amount of display, a detail level, or a display type when the retrieved information is presented, and
the determination unit determines the granularity of information associated with a context indicating the information on the user status.
(3)
The information processing device according to (2), wherein the amount of display is determined by the number of presentations of the retrieved information,
the detail level is determined by presenting at least one of a title, a summary, and a full text of the retrieved information, and
the display type is determined by presenting at least one of a text and an image.
(4)
The information processing device according to any one of (1) to (3), wherein the determination unit determines the granularity of information based on a weight assigned to a context indicating the information on the user status.
(5)
The information processing device according to (4), wherein the weight assigned to the context is changed according to feedback from the user.
(6)
The information processing device according to (4), wherein the weight assigned to the context is set based on an operation history of the user.
(7)
The information processing device according to any one of (1) to (6), wherein the information on the user status is at least one of a current time, a day of a week, and a location.
(8)
The information processing device according to any one of (1) to (7), wherein the information on the user status is at least one of the number of currently accompanying persons, a relationship with the accompanying person, and an attribute of the accompanying person.
(9)
The information processing device according to any one of (1) to (8), wherein the information on the user status is one of a current user status and an action.
(10)
The information processing device according to any one of (1) to (9), wherein the determination unit determines that the granularity of information is to be associated with a genre of the retrieved information.
(11)
The information processing device according to any one of (1) to (10), wherein the determination unit determines that the granularity of information is to be associated with a type of device to which the information is presented under control of the presentation control unit.
(12)
A control method including:
retrieving information in response to a request of a user;
acquiring information on a current user status;
determining granularity of information according to the acquired information on the user status when the retrieved information is presented; and
controlling presentation of the retrieved information with the determined granularity of information.
(13)
A program for causing a computer to function as:
a retrieval unit that retrieves information in response to a request of a user;
an acquisition unit that acquires information on a current user status;
a determination unit that determines granularity of information according to the acquired information on the user status when the retrieved information is presented; and
a presentation control unit that controls presentation of the retrieved information with the determined granularity of information.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-134660 | Jun 2014 | JP | national |
This application is a U.S. National Phase of International Patent Application No. PCT/JP2015/061162 filed on Apr. 9, 2015, which claims priority benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. JP 2014-134660 filed in the Japan Patent Office on Jun. 30, 2014. Each of the above-referenced applications is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2015/061162 | 4/9/2015 | WO | 00 |
