Patent Application
20100217762
The present invention relates to information presentation systems, information signal processing apparatuses, information signal processing methods, and recording media, and particularly relates to an information presentation system capable of extracting, on the basis of history information regarding operations of a user, information on an operation performed by another user who has a preference similar to the user, and providing the extracted information to the user, an information signal processing apparatus, an information signal processing method, and a recording medium.
Conventionally, in reproducing apparatuses and recording/reproducing apparatuses, for example, setting items used to control an image quality may be selected from a menu, and the items are generally configured as a hierarchical structure. When a desired setting item is to be selected from such a hierarchical menu, an operation of pressing a button is required to be performed several times.
In
As means for vertically and horizontally moving the cursor CS10, a remote control device 20 shown in
When a menu screen MN10 in a state as shown in
Even when the user selects the item “detailed control” almost every time after the user selects the item “color density”, the total six pressing operations are required when the selection is changed between the two menu items. Therefore, a method for changing a user interface depending on a user's preference has been employed, for example.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-75729 discloses a method for changing commands to be displayed as options depending on a tendency of command selections by a user.
However, although a user interface suitable for the tendency of user's selections is used when the method disclosed in Patent Document 1 is employed, means for determining whether a selection operation is appropriate by the user has not been proposed. Taking a case where an image quality control is performed as shown in
The present invention has been made in view of the above problem, and an object is to provide information on a user's operation to another user.
According to the present invention, an information signal processing apparatus which has a plurality of commands corresponding to a plurality of functions and which performs data communication with a server includes an operation unit which accepts operation inputs and generates signals in accordance with a number of the commands selected by the operation input, and a command display/input unit which is included in the operation unit, which displays text blocks corresponding to the commands, and which generates and outputs signals corresponding to the commands when accepting the selection operations of the commands corresponding to the text blocks. The information signal processing apparatus further includes an operation history storage unit which stores content of the operation inputs performed using the operation unit so as to generate operation history information, and a command association degree calculating unit which calculates degrees of associations between first commands in which selection operations thereof were accepted last time and second commands which are selected by the operation inputs using the operation unit for individual combinations of the first commands and the second commands, and which assigns ranks to the second commands associated with the first commands in ascending order of degrees of the associations with the first commands so as to generate first display ranking information. Moreover, the information signal processing apparatus includes an input/output unit which outputs the operation history information stored in the operation history storage unit and the first display ranking information to the server and receives second display ranking information output from the server, and a display-command extracting unit which selects one of the first commands of a type the same as the command selected by the input operation using the operation unit from at least one of display ranking information selected by a user from among the first display ranking information and the second display ranking information, which extracts a predetermined number of second commands which are associated with the selected first command in the display ranking information in ascending order of degrees of associations with the first command, and which outputs the extracted second commands. With this configuration, the command display/input unit displays the text blocks corresponding to the predetermined number of second commands output from the display command extracting unit in ascending order of the ranks assigned to the second command.
Accordingly, the second display ranking information generated by the server in accordance with operation history information of a plurality of users and display ranking information calculated in accordance with operation histories is supplied to the user.
According to the present invention, a user obtains information on operations performed by other users.
a) and 15(b) are explanatory diagrams illustrating associations between a command selection time and a command association degree according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
a) and 16(b) are explanatory diagrams illustrating associations between the number of times operations are performed when a command is changed to another command and a command association degree.
a) to 35(c) are explanatory diagrams illustrating display in a display unit according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
A first embodiment of the present invention will be described hereinafter with reference to
The reproducing device 100 from which an external storage medium such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) and a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) drive is detachable reproduces video content and the like recorded in such a device. The remote control device 200 transmits a command for instructing reproduction or stop of a video image to the reproducing device 100 in response to a user's operation, and in addition, outputs a command for image quality control. When a user performs image quality control through the remote control device 200, information on history of the operation is stored in the remote control device 200.
The remote control device 200 stores a history of user's operations and extracts a command which is the most highly associated with a command input by the user (or a command which is most likely selected next by the user) in accordance with information on the stored operation history. Then, the extracted command is displayed in a command display/input unit 17. Here, the command represents a function such as “sharpness” or “color density”, for example. The command display/input unit 17 functions also as a command button. When accepting a pressing operation performed by the user, the command display/input unit 17 generates a signal corresponding to a command displayed in the pressed command button and outputs the signal.
In this embodiment, since the command display/input unit 17 includes three buttons, three commands are extracted in accordance with a command (hereinafter also referred to as an “input command”) input by the user. The extracted commands are assigned to the buttons in order of degrees of associations with the input command from the uppermost portion. The commands are assigned in accordance with information on command display ranking which has been calculated in advance. The command display ranking is determined on the basis of degrees of associations between commands calculated in accordance with the operation history.
The remote control device 200 displays a questionnaire used to obtain information on a user's preference, and accepts input of answers of the user at the time of an initial setting of the device. Information on the questionnaire obtained here and the operation history information and the command-display-ranking information stored in the remote control device 200 itself are individually supplied to the server 300. The server 300 extracts information (command-display-ranking information) which may be highly usable for the user using the remote control device 200 in accordance with the information supplied from the remote control device 200, and supplies the information to the user.
Examples of the information which may be highly usable for the user include information on operations performed by another specific user (hereinafter referred to as a “master user”) such as a specialist of video production or a movie critic in which it is highly possible that content of the operation may be of some help for the user or information on operations performed by a still another user which has a preference similar to that of the user. In this embodiment, the command display ranking determined on the basis of operation histories of such a user is supplied to the user.
The extraction of another user who has a preference similar to the preference of the user is performed in accordance with community information stored in the server 300. Community means a group in which users who have similar preferences are gathered, and the server 300 performs classification in accordance with questionnaire information supplied from the users and operation history information.
When receiving information supplied from a user, the server 300 performs a process of classifying the user who supplied the information into one of communities and transmitting command-display-ranking information in the classified community and command-display-ranking information of a master user to the user.
Through this process, information on operations performed by other users which may be highly usable for the user is supplied to the user.
Next, an example of an internal configuration of the information presentation system of this embodiment will be described with reference to
Note that, although the remote control device 200 and the server 300 perform data communication through the reproducing device 100 in this embodiment, a method for performing data communication between the remote control device 200 and the server 300 is not limited to this. For example, an external storage medium which records the information stored in the remote control device 200 may be sent to the server 300 by mail, for example. Alternatively, in a case where the server 300 has an interface which enables wireless data communication with the remote control device 200, transmission/reception of data may be directly performed between the remote control device 200 and the server 300.
In
The reproducing device 100 includes a controller 101, a memory 102, a decoder 103, a communication unit 104, a display unit 105, a display controller 106, an external storage medium 107, an I/F (interface) unit 108, and a signal receiving unit 109. The controller 101, the memory 102, and the communication unit 104 are configured so as to be the same as those of the server 300, and therefore, descriptions thereof are omitted. The decoder 103 decodes a video signal which has been coded in accordance with the MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) standard, for example, and performs a process of extracting a baseband signal.
The display unit 105 is constituted by a CRT (Cathode-Ray Tube), an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), or the like, and displays video content and the like under control of the display controller 106. The display controller 106 also performs an OSD (On Screen Display) process for displaying an image quality control menu, for example, in a screen of the display unit 105 in accordance with a command input from the remote control device 200.
The external storage medium 107 is constituted by an HDD, a DVD drive, a floppy disk (registered trademark), a memory card, or the like. The I/F unit 108 controls writing of data to and reading of data from the external storage medium 107. The signal receiving unit 109 receives a remote control signal transmitted from the remote control device 200, generates an operation signal corresponding to the remote control signal, and supplies the operation signal to the controller 101.
The remote control device 200 includes an operation unit 10, a controller 11, a memory 12, a remote control signal generating unit 13, a signal transmission unit 14, a display unit 15, a display controller 16, the command display/input unit 17, an external storage medium 18, and an I/F unit 19. The controller 11 is configured similarly to those of the server 300 and the reproducing device 100, and therefore, a description thereof is omitted. The memory 12 stores programs and data required for calculating association degrees between commands.
The operation unit 10 includes character input buttons and an arrow key, for example, and outputs an operation signal in accordance with a user's input operation. The operation unit 10 will be described in detail hereinafter with reference to
The display unit 15 is constituted by an LCD or the like, and displays a list of display ranks of commands which is to be obtained by the user, which will be described hereinafter, in accordance with a user's operation performed using the operation unit 10. The display controller 16 performs control of display of text and video images in the display unit 15. The command display/input unit 17 displays notations (names) representing various commands output from a display command extracting unit which will be described hereinafter. When the buttons included in the command display/input unit 17 are pressed by the user, signals corresponding to the displayed commands are output. The external storage medium 18 is constituted by a floppy disk (registered trademark) or a memory card, and stores information on answers of questionnaires, information on histories of user's operations, information on command display ranking and the like.
Next, referring to
In the remote control device 200 shown in
The command display/input buttons 17a to 17c include respective display units constituted by LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes), for example, and changes text displayed in the display units in accordance with an operation input (input command) performed by the user. In the example shown in
When the command display/input button 17a in which “sharpness” is displayed is pressed in accordance with a user's operation, a signal used to display a control screen for “sharpness” representing control of a degree of sharpness of images in a reproduced video image is transmitted to the reproducing device 100. Note that, although the command display/input unit 17 includes the buttons having a display function, the command display/input unit 17 may include a touch panel, for example.
Next, operations of units included in the remote control device 200 will be described with reference to a function block diagram of
The operation history storage unit 201 is a region in which an entire history of operations performed using the operation unit 10 and the command display/input unit 17 is stored. Information stored in the operation history storage unit 201 is transmitted to the server 300 through the external storage medium 18, and is used by the server 300 as a criterion when the server 300 classifies users into communities.
Such operation history information is stored in the operation history storage unit 201 (refer to
In this embodiment, the server 300 uses the information on answers of questionnaires of users as a criterion for making a determination when the server 300 classifies the users into communities, and the information on answers of questionnaires is also stored in the operation history storage unit 201.
As items of the preference questionnaire, a question about image quality is provided so that an answer “sharp”, an answer “soft”, or the like is selected. As items of the environment questionnaire, questions about types of an input device and an output device, a brightness level of a room, and a category of frequently-viewed content are provided. The information on answers of questionnaires stored in the operation history storage unit 201 is output to the external storage medium 18 simultaneously when the operation history information and the command display ranking information is output to the external storage medium 18.
Referring back to the function block diagram of
The command storage determination unit 202 performs a process of storing a time point when a selection of a preceding command is completed and a type of the command in order to obtain a period of time elapsed between a time point when the selection of the preceding command has been terminated and a time point when a command currently input is received. Note that the time point when a selection of a preceding command is completed corresponds to a time point when the back button 10XB is pressed in a state in which “sharpness” has been selected or a time point when a command selection state is cancelled by an operation of pressing a direct button, not shown, for example. Also in a case where the selection state is cancelled (the menu screen is cancelled) since a period of time in which any operation is not performed continues for a certain period of time after control of “sharpness” is performed, it is determined that the selection of a command is completed, and the time point of the completion of the command is stored. Note that the time point of the completion to be stored here is not a time point when a menu screen MN1 is cancelled but a time point when a set value is changed in accordance with the selection of the command.
The input-frequency calculating unit 203 calculates a frequency of occurrence of a case where a “preceding command” (first command) which is a command selected the last time and an “input command” (second command) which is a command currently input are consecutively input in terms of time. The shifting-speed calculating unit 204 calculates a speed of a shifting from the “preceding command” to the “input command” when the commands are changed from one to another through the user interface such as the menu screen. The shifting speed will be described in detail hereinafter.
The command-association-degree calculating unit 205 calculates a degree of an association between commands, that is, a combination of the “preceding command” and the “input command” in accordance with the input frequency calculated by the input-frequency calculating unit 203 and the shifting speed calculated by the shifting-speed calculating unit 204. Then, the command-association-degree calculating unit 205 performs a process of assigning ranks to such combinations of commands on the basis of calculated association degrees. The first display-ranking storage unit 206 is a region which stores the display ranks of the commands calculated as described above.
Note that the input frequency calculated by the input-frequency calculating unit 203, the shifting speed calculated by the shifting-speed calculating unit 204, and the degree of an association between commands calculated by the command-association-degree calculating unit 205 are obtained for each combination of the “preceding command” and the “input command” which are associated with each other, and results of the calculations are stored in the memory 12, for example. Commands corresponding to the “preceding command” and commands corresponding to the “input command” are changed on a case-by-case basis. For example, in a case where a command “color density” is input and a command “sharpness” is selected immediately before the command “color density, the command “sharpness” corresponds to the “preceding command” and the command “color density” corresponds to the “input command”. Furthermore, a command “color density” is input and a command “hue” is selected immediately before the command “color density”, the command “hue” corresponds to the “preceding command” and the command “color density” corresponds to the “input command”.
The second display-ranking storage unit 207 is a region which stores command display ranking and the like of other users or the master users transmitted from the server 300. Data stored in the second display-ranking storage unit 207 is prevented from being updated by a process performed by the command-association-degree calculating unit 205, for example. Therefore, the user moves information on the command display ranking stored in the first display-ranking storage unit 206 to the second display-ranking storage unit 207 whereby the information on the display ranking is retained. The user may make a determination as to whether the information on the display ranking stored in the first display-ranking storage unit 206 or the information on the display ranking stored in the second display-ranking storage unit 207 is used (or both of the information may be used).
As described above, since the display ranking information stored in the second display-ranking storage unit 207 is retained so as not to be updated, if the user wishes to store a plurality of display ranking information, a plurality of display-ranking storage units 207 may be provided. For example, in a case where a single reproducing device 100 is used by a plurality of persons such as members of a family, a plurality of display ranking information for the members of the family may be individually stored in a plurality of display-ranking storage units 207.
The display-command extracting unit 208 extracts, among combinations of the “preceding commands” and the “input commands” registered so as to be associated with each other which have been stored in the first display-ranking storage unit 206, three combinations which have higher association degrees calculated by the command-association-degree calculating unit 205 in order of association degree, and outputs the “input commands” of the extracted three combinations to the command display/input unit 17.
Next, operations of the units included in the remote control device 200 will be described in detail. First, an operation of the command storage determination unit 202 will be described with reference to
By performing this process, a command input after a selection of a preceding command with a predetermined interval, for example, after a day has been elapsed, is not output from the command storage determination unit. That is, such a command is not used for calculation for obtaining a degree of an association with the preceding command.
Next, an example of a process performed by the input-frequency calculating unit 203 will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in
Furthermore, a state in which different combinations of “preceding commands” and “input commands” have different frequency values such that a frequency of a selection of the command “hue” after the command “color density” is “60”, a frequency of a selection of the command “sharpness” after the command “color density” is “30”, and the like is shown. These values in a field “frequency” are obtained by addition of 1 performed in step S12 of the flowchart shown in
The input-frequency calculating unit 203 adds the frequency values to one another for the individual types of “preceding command” so as to obtain total values, and divides the individual frequency values by the corresponding total values whereby the “frequency ratios” are obtained (in step S13 and step S14 of
Next, an example of a process performed by the shifting-speed calculating unit 204 will be described with reference to a flowchart of
The “average elapsed time” is calculated by obtaining a total elapsed time by adding a number of periods of time elapsed by the time the “input command” is input after a state in which the “preceding command” has been selected to one another, the number of periods of time corresponding to the predetermined number of measurements, and dividing the obtained total elapsed time by the number of measurements. In this case, as variables, the average elapsed time and the number of measurements which are obtained by the method described above are recorded. For example, assuming that the number of measurements is 10 and the average elapsed time obtained from 10 measurements is 3, and furthermore, a measurement value in the 11th measurement is 5 seconds, an average elapsed time of 3.18 (seconds/times) is obtained from the following equation: (10 (times)×3 (seconds/times)+5 (seconds))/11 (times)=3.18 (seconds/times).
Alternatively, combinations of a number of required actual periods of time elapsed by the time the “input command” is input after a state in which the “preceding command” has been selected and corresponding sequential numbers may be recorded, a sum of the periods of elapsed time may be calculated, and the sum of the periods of elapsed time may be divided by the number of measurements. In this case, as variables, the sequential numbers and the elapsed times are recorded. For example, assuming that the number of measurements is 5 and a result of the first measurement is 3 seconds, a result of the second measurement is 4 seconds, a result of the third measurement is 2 seconds, a result of the fourth measurement is 3 seconds, and a result of the fifth measurement is 5 seconds, an average elapsed time of 3.4 [second/times] is obtained by the following equation: (3 [seconds]+4 [seconds]+2 [seconds]+3 [seconds]+5 [seconds])/5 [times]=3.4 [seconds/times].
The “shifting speed” is calculated by dividing “the required number of times buttons are pressed” by the “average elapsed time”. This value serves as an index of the number of times in which buttons are pressed per one second. In the examples shown in
Next, a reason the index described above is used for a calculation of a degree of an association between commands will be described with reference to
Furthermore,
When only the numbers of selections are used for obtaining frequencies, a result “30%” is obtained in both of the cases shown in
a) and 16(b) are diagrams illustrating an association between the number of times operations are performed when commands are changed from one to another and a command association degree.
Furthermore,
Normally, a case where the number of required operations is 6 should require more time when compared with a case where the number of required operation is 3. However, in both of the cases, 10 seconds are required for changing commands from one to another. That is, the user has a tendency to select the command “detailed control” after selecting the command “color density”, and therefore, the operation time may be short. That is, it is considered that, as a preference of this user, an association between the command “color density” and the command “detailed control” is high.
When taking the number of actual pressings into consideration as the number of operations without taking the number of operations and the elapsed time into consideration, the number of operations and the elapsed time obtained while the user is hesitating over a selection of a command may be used for a calculation of a command association degree. This operation is not exactly performed by taking a user's preference into consideration. Therefore, in this embodiment, the calculation of a command association degree is performed on the basis of not only the number of pressings actually performed when commands are changed from one to another but also the requisite minimum number of operations and the average elapsed time required for shifting of commands from one to another.
As described above, since the degree of an association between commands is calculated taking not only the number of times the “input command” is input after the “preceding command” but also the requisite minimum number of operations required for shifting commands from one to another, the period of time required for the shifting, and the user interface into consideration in this embodiment, a value more suitable for a type of usage of the user may be set to the degree of an association between commands.
Next, an example of a process performed by the command-association-degree calculating unit 205 will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in
Next, it is determined whether a history of combinations of “preceding commands” and “input commands” has been stored (in step S34). When it is determined that the history has been stored, a process of assigning display ranks is performed in accordance with the association degree ratios obtained in step S33 (in step S35). When it is determined that the history has not been stored, a process of assigning display ranks in order of association degree ratio is performed with reference to preset “initial association degree ratios” (in step S36).
As is described in step S33 of
Among the “input commands” corresponding to the command “color density”, the command “hue” has the highest association degree ratio of 37.5, followed by the command “detailed control” having an association degree ratio of 16.7, the command “sharpness” having an association degree ratio of 12.5, and the command “black level” having an association ratio of 10.8. Then, the command-association-degree calculating unit 205 assigns display ranks in this order. That is, the highest display rank is assigned to the command “hue”, the second highest display rank is assigned to the command “detailed control”, the third highest display rank is assigned to the command “sharpness”, and the fourth highest display rank is assigned to the command “black level”. The ranks obtained as described above are stored in the memory 18, for example, in a state in which the ranks are associated with the corresponding “preceding commands” and the corresponding “input commands” as shown in
Note that in a case where the command “color density” corresponds to the “preceding command” and a command “noise reduction” corresponds to the “input command”, for example, and a history of this combination has not been stored, a display rank is set with reference to an “initial association degree ratio” set for the combination of the commands “color density” and “noise reduction”. For example, if this combination has “initial association degree ratio” of 12, the fourth display rank is assigned since an association degree ratio between the commands “color density” and “black level” of 10.8 is smaller than 12 and an association degree ratio between the commands “color density” and “sharpness” of 12.5 is larger than 12.
Furthermore, although a method for multiplying the “frequency ratio” by the “shifting speed” is taken as an example as a method for calculating the “association degree”, the “association degree” may be obtained by a weighted sum of the “frequency ratio” and the “shifting speed”.
Next, an example of a process performed by the display-command extracting unit 208 will be described with reference to a table shown in
For example, in a case where the command “color density” is received in step S41, a process of matching the received command “color density” with a command “color density” serving as a “preceding command” is performed (in step S42). Then, among the commands “hue”, “detailed control”, “sharpness”, and “black level” serving as the “input commands” associated with the command “color density”, a predetermined number of “input commands” are extracted in order of display rank (in step S43). Note that, the predetermined number of commands corresponds to the number of command display input buttons included in the command display/input unit 17. In this embodiment, since three command display input buttons 17a to 17c are provided as the command display input buttons, the predetermined number of commands corresponds to 3.
By performing this process, the table shown in
Note that, when generating a list of display ranks as shown in
An example of a process performed by the display-command extracting unit 208 in this case will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in
The value assigned to the variable COUNT corresponds to the number of commands to be displayed in the command display/input unit 17 (=the number of command display input buttons). In this embodiment, since the number of commands to be displayed in the command display/input unit 17 is 3, the process performed by the display-command extracting unit 208 is terminated when the variable COUNT becomes larger than 3.
Next, in step S52, it is determined whether both of the display rank information stored in the two display rank storage units are used. The two display rank storage units corresponds to the first display-ranking storage unit 206 and the second display-ranking storage unit 207. In a case where the user determines that both of the display rank information stored in the two display rank storage units are to be used, “YES” is selected, and the process proceeds to step S53.
In step S53, the RANK-th command of the first display-ranking storage unit 26, that is, an “input command” having the highest display rank in the list stored in the first display-ranking storage unit 206 is determined to be a command of interest. Here, it is assumed that a list shown in
In
Therefore, the command of interest determined in step S53 corresponds to the command “sharpness” having the highest display rank stored in the first display-ranking storage unit 206. Then, it is determined whether the command of interest, i.e., the command “sharpness” is an already-processed command (in step S54). The already-processed command means a command which has been processed in operations in the flowchart before this step has been reached. Since the command “sharpness” has processed for the first time among the processes of the flowchart of
Then, in step S55, a process of outputting the command of interest determined in step S53 to the command display/input unit 17 is performed. That is, the command “sharpness” is output to the command display/input unit 17. After this process, 1 is added to the variable COUNT (in step S56), and it is determined whether a value included in the variable COUNT is equal to or smaller than the number of commands to be displayed (in step S57). The value included in the variable COUNT is 1 since 1 has been added to an initial value of 0 in step S56, and “the number of commands to be displayed” corresponds to the number of command to be displayed in the command display/input unit 17, and is 3 in this embodiment. Therefore, since an inequality COUNT (1)≦the number of commands to be displayed (3) is satisfied, “YES” is selected and the process proceeds to step S58.
In step S58, the RANK-th command in the second display-ranking storage unit 207 is determined to be a command of interest. In this step, the value assigned to the variable RANK is still 1, and therefore, an “input command” having the highest display rank in the second display-ranking storage unit 207 corresponds to the command of interest. In the example shown in
Then, subsequently, in step S60, a process of outputting the command of interest determined in step S58 to the command display/input unit 17 is performed. Since the command of interest determined in step S58 corresponds to the command “color density”, the command “color density” is output to the command display/input unit 17.
Here, 1 is further added to the variable COUNT (in step S61), and it is determined whether the value included in the variable COUNT is equal to or smaller than the number of commands to be displayed (in step S62). The value included in the variable COUNT is 2 since 1 is added in step S61 to 1 obtained in step S57, and “the number of commands to be displayed” is 3. Therefore, an inequality COUNT (2)≦the number of commands to be displayed (3) is not satisfied, and accordingly, “NO” is selected and the process proceeds to step S63.
In step S63, 1 is added to the variable RANK. In this step, the value included in the variable RANK is 2. Then, the process returns to step S53, and the RANK-th command of the first display-ranking storage unit 206 is determined to be a command of interest. Since an “input command” having the second highest display rank in the first display-ranking storage unit 206 corresponds to the command “color density” in the example shown in
Subsequently, in step S54, it is determined whether the command is an already-processed command. Since the command “color density” has already processed, “YES” is selected and the process proceeds to step S58. Then, the RANK-th command in the second display-ranking storage unit 207 is determined to be a command of interest. In this step, since the value included in the variable RANK is 2, the command of interest here is the command “hue” which is an “input command” having the second highest display rank in the second display-ranking storage unit 207.
Next, in step S59, it is determined whether the command is an already-processed command. Since the command “hue” is to be processed for the first time in this step, “NO” is selected and the process proceeds to step S60. Then, in step S60, a process of outputting the command of interest determined in step S58 to the command display/input unit 17 is performed.
Subsequently, 1 is added to the variable COUNT in step S61, and therefore, the variable COUNT is 3. Therefore, an inequality COUNT (3)≦the number of commands to be displayed (3) is satisfied in step S62. Accordingly, “YES” is selected, and the process is terminated.
In a case where the user determined to refer to only display ranking included in a single display-ranking storage unit, “NO” is selected in step S52, and the process proceeds to step S64. When the user determined that only display ranking included in the first display-ranking storage unit 206 is to be referred to, “YES” is selected, and subsequently, in step S65, the RANK-th command of the first display-ranking storage unit 206 is determined to be a command of interest. Here, since the variable RANK is still the initial value of 1, the command “sharpness” having the highest display rank in the first display-ranking storage unit 206 corresponds to the command of interest.
Next, a process of adding 1 to the value assigned to the variable RANK is performed (in step S66), and it is determined whether the value assigned to the variable RANK is larger than the number of commands to be displayed (in step S67). Since the value assigned to the variable RANK is 2 in step S66 and the number of commands to be displayed is 3, the determination is negative. Therefore, the process returns to step S65.
In step S65, the RANK-th command of the first display-ranking storage unit 206 is determined to be a command of interest. Here, the variable RANK is 2, and therefore, the command “color density” having the second highest display rank in the first display-ranking storage unit 206 corresponds to the command of interest. Next, the process of adding 1 to the value assigned to the variable RANK is performed (in step S66), and it is determined whether the value assigned to the variable RANK is larger than the number of commands to be displayed (in step S67). Since the value assigned to the variable RANK is 3 in step S66 and the number of commands to be displayed is 3, the determination is negative, and accordingly, the process returns to step S65 again.
In step S65, the RANK-th command of the first display-ranking storage unit 206 is determined to be a command of interest. Here, since the variable RANK is 3, the command “NR” having the third highest display rank in the first display-ranking storage unit 206 corresponds to the command of interest. Next, the process of adding 1 to the value assigned to the variable RANK is performed (in step S66), and it is determined whether the value assigned to the variable RANK is larger than the number of commands to be displayed (in step S67). Since the value assigned to the variable RANK is 4 in step S66 and the number of commands to be displayed is 3, the determination is affirmative. Therefore, the process is terminated.
In a case where the user determined to refer to only display ranking of the second display-ranking storage unit 207, “NO” is selected in step S64 and the process proceeds to step S68. Operations performed in step S68 to step S70 are the same as those performed in step S65 to step S67, and therefore, descriptions thereof are omitted. In a case where the display-command extracting unit 208 refers to the display ranks shown in
The command display/input unit 17 performs a process of assigning the three commands transmitted from the display-command extracting unit 208 to the command display input buttons 17a to 17c in order of display rank and displaying the commands. For example, when the commands “hue”, “detailed control”, and “sharpness” are transmitted from the display-command extracting unit 208, the command “hue” is displayed in the command display/input button 17a, the command “detailed control” is displayed in the command display/input button 17b, and the command “sharpness” is displayed in the command display/input button 17c, similarly to the case of
The command display input buttons 17a to 17c serve as operation units as well as display units. When receiving a pressing operation performed by the user, each of the command display input buttons 17a to 17c generates an actual command corresponding to a displayed command to be output. In a case where the user pressed the command display/input button 17a represented by the command “hue”, a signal for instructing output of a control screen for the command “hue” is transmitted to the reproducing device 100. Then, in the display unit 105 of the reproducing device 100, the menu screen MN1 is displayed as shown in
Note that, in the foregoing process, since the calculation of a degree of an association between commands is performed every time the command storage determination unit 202 performs an output process, commands displayed in the command display/input unit 17 are changed where appropriate. However, a setting in which display ranks of commands to be displayed in the command display/input unit 17 are not updated may be performed. In a case where the user selects the setting in which command association degree information is not updated through the operation unit 10 or the like, output of commands is not performed by the command storage determination unit 202.
When the user performed the setting in which the display ranking is to be updated, “YES” is selected in step S72 and the display ranking stored in the first display-ranking storage unit 206 is updated (in step S76). Specifically, the command storage determination unit 202 outputs a command and a degree of an association between commands is calculated in accordance with the command, and therefore, the command display ranking stored in the first display-ranking storage unit 206 is also updated. However, also in this case, as described in step S75, the display ranking stored in the second display-ranking storage unit 207 is not updated.
Next, an example of a process of supplying the operation history information stored in the operation history storage unit 201 and the display ranking information (refer to
In this embodiment, before the information is supplied to the server 300, the information is first stored in the external storage medium 18, and the external storage medium 18 is attached to the reproducing device 100, so that the information is transmitted from the reproducing device 100 to the server 300 through the network 50. Therefore, a message prompting the user to perform confirmation or the like is displayed in the display unit 15 of the remote control device 200 or the display unit 105 of the reproducing device 100, for example, when the data is output to the external storage medium 18 or the data is transmitted from the reproducing device 100 to the server 300. Note that, as described above, a method for transmitting the information stored in the remote control device 200 to the server 300 is not limited to the method described above. Therefore, even when another method is employed, the confirmation should be performed before the data is transmitted to the server 300.
When it is determined that the predetermined period of time has been elapsed from when data was obtained last time, the process proceeds to step S81 where it is determined whether a user's agreement on the data obtaining has been obtained (in step S81). When the agreement on the data obtaining has been obtained, the process of supplying data to the server 300 is performed (in step S82). When the agreement on the data obtaining has not been obtained, the process is terminated.
When it is determined that the predetermined period of time has not been elapsed after the day when data was obtained last time, “NO” is selected in step S80 and the process proceeds to step S83. Then, it is determined whether an amount of data reached a predetermined amount. When it is determined that the amount of data reached the predetermined amount, the process proceeds to step S81 whereas when it is determined that the amount of data does not reach the predetermined amount, the process is terminated. This checking operation is performed once a day when the reproducing device 100 is first activated. Note that information on a user name is included in the information to be supplied to the server 300 so that the server 300 recognizes the user serving as a data transmission source.
Next, an example of an internal configuration of the server 300 and examples of processes performed by various units will be described.
The communication unit 304 has been described with reference to
First, the log data processor 310 calculates average values of the set values for individual command types in accordance with the information. Each of the average values of the set values for individual command types is obtained by extracting only values finally set in command operations, adding the set values to one another, and dividing an obtained sum of the set values by the number of settings. The values finally set in command operations correspond to values set at a timing when “a command “hue” is terminated” or at a timing when “a command “color density” is terminated”.
The log data processor 310 further calculates operation periods of the commands and frequencies of command operations. Then, sums of the operation periods and sums of the operation frequencies are obtained for individual commands so that operation amounts for individual commands are calculated. Furthermore, the operation periods, the operation frequencies, and the operation amounts obtained as described above are individually subjected to addition so that a total operation time, a total operation frequency, and a total operation amount are also obtained. Note that the operation frequencies obtained here are not calculated on the basis of the number of times commands are selected, but calculated on the basis of the number of times the set values are changed based on the commands. Note that since it is assumed that data storage periods are different from one another depending on users, the log data processor 310 also performs a process of normalizing various data so that the various data correspond to values in storage periods of one week, for example.
In addition, average values of the final values set by selecting the commands are calculated.
In
In the item “operation period”, the total operation periods and the operation periods of the individual commands are described on the second time scale. In the item “operation frequency”, the total operation frequencies and the operation frequencies of the individual commands are described by percentage.
The user classifying unit 311 performs a process of classifying users serving as data transmission sources into certain communities in accordance with the data transmitted from the log data processor 310. The classification is performed on the basis of the data calculated by the log data processor 310 and the questionnaire answer information transmitted from the users. Using the questionnaire answer information, general objects of interest and preferences of the users are defined. Furthermore, with reference to the “operation amounts” of the individual commands transmitted from the log data processor 310, functions in which the users prefer are specified, and degrees of the preferences are also measured in accordance with the operation amounts.
Furthermore, in accordance with the operation amounts, interest and a preference of a user to this system itself may be measured. The interest and the preference to this system itself means interest and a preference to operations of the remote control device 200 and interest and a preference to changing of various set values performed by the operations. For example, if a user enjoys changing image qualities which occur due to operations of the remote control device 200 and operates the remote control device 200 several times, it is determined that the user has a high degree of interest and a preference to this system itself.
The user classifying unit 311 focuses, among the data calculated by the log data processor 310, a command having the highest ratio of an operation amount and uses a type of the command and an operation amount of the command as criteria for the classification.
Note that the reason the command having the highest ratio of an operation amount is focused is that it is considered that the user is especially interested in the command having the highest ratio of an operation amount. That is, it is considered that the user's preference is reflected in a type of the command having the highest ratio of an operation amount. Furthermore, the operation amount may show the degree of the user's preference to (a function realized by) the command.
As for the user A shown in
Specifically, when the items shown in
The number of communities may be appropriately set by selecting parameters used for the community classification and by controlling threshold values of the levels. For example, communities may be configured not using the operation history information but only using the questionnaire answer information. Alternatively, the users may be classified into the communities with reference to only the operation history information. In a case where communities are configured in various methods, a single user may be included in a plurality of communities.
The community-display-ranking calculating unit 312 performs a process of calculating command display ranks in entire communities with reference to command display rank information of the users who belong to the communities. An image diagram of this process is shown in
Combinations of display ranks having higher display ranks result in smaller sums of the display ranks of the users in the community. Accordingly, display ranks in the community are assigned to the combinations in ascending order of the sums of the display ranks, and the assigned display ranks are determined to be command display ranks (second display ranking information) in the community. In the example shown in
Next, an example of a process performed by the master-user extracting unit 313 will be described with reference to a flowchart of
In
When it is determined that the user name included in the information supplied from the log data processor 310 does not match any one of the names of the master users, “NO” is selected in step S91, and the process proceeds to step S93. In step S93, it is determined whether a total operation amount, a total operation period, or a total operation frequency in the received data is the highest value in the community. When it is determined that the total operation amount, the total operation period, or the total operation frequency in the received data is the highest value in the community, the process proceeds to step S92 where a process of outputting the received data (the command display ranking information and the information on average values of values set for individual commands) to the community-display-ranking storage unit 315 is performed.
When it is determined that the total operation amount, the total operation period, or the total operation frequency in the received data is not the highest value in the community, it is determined whether the next user to be subjected to the determination exists (in step S94). When it is determined that the next user to be subjected to the determination exists, the process returns to step S91 and the process is continued. When it is determined that a user to be subjected to the determination does not exist, the process is terminated.
The command display ranking information and the information on values set for individual commands which are calculated by the community-display-ranking calculating unit 312 and the command display ranking information and the information on values set for individual commands which are extracted by the master-user extracting unit 313 are output to the community-display-ranking storage unit 315 and stored in the community-display-ranking storage unit 315. The community-display-ranking storage unit 315 stores the community display ranking information and the information on values set for individual commands which are transmitted from the community-display-ranking calculating unit 312 and the display ranking information of a master user and the information on values set for individual commands which are transmitted from the master-user extracting unit 313 after they are associated with the user.
The display ranking information stored in the community-display-ranking storage unit 315 is transmitted to the reproducing device 100 through the communication unit 304. Then, the reproducing device 100 transmits the display ranking information and the information on values set for individual commands to the remote control device 200. In the remote control device 200, the display ranking information transmitted from the reproducing device 100 is stored in the second display-ranking storage unit 207. Then, the information is referred to in accordance with an instruction by a user when a display-ranking determination process is performed by the display-command extracting unit 208.
By performing this process, the display ranking information in the community to which the user assigned and the display ranking information of the master user are provided. In addition, this invention includes a function of allowing the user to obtain information other than the information described above.
a) to 35(c) show examples of display in the display unit 15 included in the remote control device 200. As shown in
Information (a list) displayed after the command “list obtaining” is pressed may be changed depending on a type of community to which the user belongs. Alternatively, names of all communities and names of all master users may be displayed as options without exception.
In the display shown in
When an “enter” button (or a soft key) disposed on lower right side of the screen is selected, a request for obtaining the display ranking information of the “master user EX2” is transmitted to the server 300 through the reproducing device 100. Then, the display ranking information of the master user EX2 transmitted from the server 300 is further supplied to the remote control device 200 through the reproducing device 100.
Note that, although
According to the configuration and the processes of this embodiment, in the remote control device 200, when the user inputs a predetermined command through the operation unit 10 or the command display/input unit 17, commands which have the first to third highest degrees of associations with the command are displayed in the command display/input unit 17.
Furthermore, according to the configuration and the processes of this embodiment described above, the display ranking information of a community to which the user is assigned in the server 300 and the information on set values are provided for the user. By this, the user who receives display ranks may recognize information on an average operation of users having preferences and operation tendencies the same as those of the user.
Moreover, according to the configuration and the processes of this embodiment described above, the display ranking information and the information on set values generated in accordance with operation histories of users whose operation histories in the community into which the user is classified are remarkable and of famous people such as video image critic (master users) are provided. Accordingly, the user may learn a method for effectively or efficiently selecting a command which has not been thought of.
Furthermore, in this case, the provided display ranking information may be reflected to display performed by the command display/input unit, and may be used as an actual command. Moreover, since received set values may be actually used, a desired image quality may be efficiently obtained.
Furthermore, since display ranking information and information on set values which have not been transmitted to the user may be obtained by the user by using the function of “list obtaining”, the user may obtain desired display ranking information or desired information on set values. Accordingly, even when an image quality is to be controlled so that an image quality which is different than usual is obtained, the user easily obtains an operation procedure. For example, if a user who usually prefers an image quality of soft wishes to perform control of the image quality so as to obtain an image quality of sharp, display ranking information in a community “prefers sharp image quality” is obtained using the function of “list obtaining”. By this, repeated trial-and-error may be omitted when the control is performed so that the desired image quality is obtained. That is, work efficiency of the user is enhanced.
Moreover, according to the configuration of this embodiment, the display ranking information to be updated in accordance with the operation history may be stored in the second display-ranking storage unit 207. Accordingly, when the user satisfies to some extent the types of command and the display ranks displayed in the command display/input unit 17, the setting may be stored by transferring information stored in the first display-ranking storage unit 206 to the second display-ranking storage unit 207.
Note that, although the case where a desired menu (command) is selected in the menu screen having a plurality of layers is taken as an example in the foregoing embodiment, the present invention is not limited to such a case where a GUI (Graphical User Interface) is operated. A button which is assumed to be pressed after a currently pressed button may be displayed in the command display/input unit 17 by setting a shifting distance obtained by the shifting-speed calculating unit 204 as a distance between buttons in the remote control device 200.
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to
The cellular phone terminal 400 of this embodiment has a function of displaying characters and phrases (words) which are expected to be input after characters and phrases input by a user as display candidates in a predetermined region in a display unit. That is, the “commands” in the first embodiment correspond to words including characters and symbols. Also in this embodiment, display ranks of “input commands” corresponding to a “preceding command” are determined on the basis of information on a history of operation inputs performed by the user. Accordingly, the words including characters and symbols are also referred to as “commands” hereinafter.
The cellular phone terminal 400 accepts inputs for questionnaires at a time of an initial setting so that a user's preference is obtained. The cellular phone terminal 400 supplies the obtained questionnaire information, input-character history information which has been stored therein, and display ranking information calculated in accordance with an input-character history to the server 300. The server 300 extract information (command display ranking information) which is considered to be usable for the user of the cellular phone terminal 400 in accordance with the information supplied from the cellular phone terminal 400 and supplies the extracted information to the user.
As with the case of the first embodiment, the server 300 stores information on communities therein, and classifies a user who is an information transmission source into a certain community when the information is supplied from the cellular phone terminal 400. Then, command display ranking information of other users in the classified community and command display ranking information of a master user are supplied to the user.
The display unit 404 displays an electric mail generation screen, Web pages, characters and symbols which have been input using the character input buttons 401IN, and images stored in a memory 403, which will be described hereinafter. The display unit 404 includes the character candidate display unit 405 which displays characters and symbols, for example, which are highly associated with a character or a symbol input using the character input buttons 401IN or the like. The characters and symbols displayed in the character candidate display unit 405 may be selected by operating the up button 401XU, the right button 401XR, the down button 401XD, or the left button 401XL.
Content displayed in the display unit 404 and the character candidate display unit 405 is selected by pressing the determination button 401XA, and the content is deleted or the selection of the content is cancelled by pressing the cancel button 401CL.
The operation unit 401, the display unit 404, and the character candidate display unit 405 have been described above, and therefore, descriptions thereof are omitted. The controller 402 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and the like, and the memory 403 includes a ROM (Read Only Memory) or a RAM (Random Access Memory). The controller 402 performs various processes in accordance with programs stored in the memory 403 or programs read to the memory 403 from the external storage medium 407. For example, when a user instructs for generation of an electric mail (hereinafter simply referred to as a “mail”), the display controller 406 is controlled so that a text generation screen is displayed in the display unit 404. The memory 403 also stores data required for executions of the various processes performed by the controller 402.
The display controller 406 controls display of an electric-mail generation screen and display of Web pages and controls output of characters, symbols, images, and the like to the display unit 404 and the character candidate display unit 405. The external storage medium 407 is attachable to the cellular phone terminal 400 through the I/F unit 408, and is constituted by a USB (Universal Serial Bus) memory or a memory card, for example.
The antenna 410 receives electric waves transmitted from base stations and outputs the electric waves to the communication unit 409. The communication unit 409 performs demodulation of the electric waves received by the antenna 410 and modulation of data in the cellular phone terminal. The microphone 412 obtains sound around the cellular phone terminal 400 and voice of the user and converts the sound and the voice into audio signals. The speaker 413 outputs audio read from the memory 403 and audio obtained by the communication unit 409 and the like. The audio controller 411 performs a process of demodulating the audio transmitted from the communication unit 409 and the audio obtained by the microphone 412 and a process of modulating audio signals to be output from the speaker 413.
Next, operations of the units included in the cellular phone terminal 400 will be described with reference to a function block diagram shown in
The input-character history storage unit 420 is a region which stores an operation input history when the user inputs words. Information stored in the input-character history storage unit 420 is transmitted to the server 300, and the server 300 uses the information when classifying the user into a certain community. As operation history information, information on types of words input by the user, information on dates and times when the inputs of the words are terminated, and information on transmission destinations of mails.
The character storage determination unit 421 determines, when a command such as a character, a symbol, a phrase, or the like is input, whether an input preceding command corresponds to a symbol representing an end of a sentence such as a period, a space, a line break, or the like. When it is determined that the input preceding command corresponds to a symbol representing an end of a sentence, a currently-input command is not output. That is, the currently-input command is not used for calculation of a frequency between commands.
As described above, in a case where a command to be input corresponds to a character, a symbol, a phrase, or the like, even if a certain period of time has been elapsed from when a preceding command is input to when the next command is input, it is possible that a degree of an association between the preceding command and the next command is high. Accordingly, in this embodiment, a determination as to whether an input command is to be used for a calculation of an association degree is not made in accordance with a period of time elapsed from when a preceding command is input to when the next command is input but made in accordance with content of the input command.
In addition, frequencies and frequency ratios of combinations of “preceding commands” and “input commands” are shown. Methods for calculating the frequencies and the frequency ratios are the same as that performed by the input-frequency calculating unit 203 which has been described in the first embodiment. Assuming that a sum of frequencies of “input commands” which are associated with the command “ohayou” is 200, a frequency ratio obtained when the command “gozaimasu” is input after the command “ohayou” is 0.30, which is obtained by dividing a frequency of 60 of a combination of the command “ohayou” and the command “gozaimasu” by the sum 200.
Furthermore, an “average elapsed time” shown in
The command “(̂ô)” has the highest association degree ratio of 45.0 to the command “ohayou” serving as the “preceding command” followed by the command “gozaimasu” having an association degree ratio of 26.5, the command “.” having an association degree ratio of 10.8, and the command “nihon” having an association degree ration of 6.5. Then, the display ranks are assigned in this order. The display ranks obtained as described above are output to and stored in the first display-ranking storage unit 425.
The second display-ranking storage unit 426 is a region which stores command display ranking and the like of other users and master users transmitted from the server 300. As with the second display-ranking storage unit 207 of the first embodiment, values of data stored in the second display-ranking storage unit 426 are not updated by a process performed by the character-association-degree calculating unit 424, for example. Therefore, if display ranking information to be stored is read from the first display-ranking storage unit 425 and is transferred to the second display-ranking storage unit 426, the display ranking information is retained without being updated.
The display-character-candidate extracting unit 427 sequentially extracts a predetermined number of “input commands”, from an “input command” having the highest display rank, among “input commands” in accordance with the display ranking information stored in the first display-ranking storage unit 426 and/or the second display-ranking storage unit 426, and outputs the extracted “input commands” to the character candidate display unit 405 included in the display unit 404.
Furthermore, also in this embodiment, as a criterion used by the server 300 for classifying users into communities, information on answers of questionnaires of the users are also utilized, and the information on answers of questionnaires is stored in the input-character history storage unit 420.
As for the item “other party (name) of frequent transmission/reception of mail”, in addition to options “boyfriend/girlfriend” and “friend”, an input of a name of the other party is also received. Note that the “other party” corresponds to the item “transmission destination” included in the input-character history data shown in
Note that when information on property of the transmission destination is to be obtained as the input-character history information, an input of the name of the transmission destination in the questionnaire is not required. Alternatively, the item may be omitted.
A process of transmitting the information on answers of a questionnaire and the input-character history data to the server (or data is obtained) is similar to the process of the first embodiment described with reference to
Next, processes performed by the various units included in the server 300 will be described in detail. Configurations of the units of the server 300 are the same as those of the units shown in the function block diagram of
The log data processor 310 calculates frequencies of appearances of words in a period of time data has been stored, for individual words and for individual transmission destinations. Furthermore, the log data processor 310 calculates the number of total transmissions of mails in the period of time the data has been stored and the number of words per mail in accordance with information on the number of total words included in the individual mails.
Furthermore, the number of appearance frequencies of the words and ratios (%) of the appearance frequencies are shown. For example, the number of appearances of the word “(̂ô)” is 1236, and the appearance ratio thereof to the total number of words (7041) is 17.6%. When the item “transmission destination” corresponds to “a”, the word “ryokai” is the most frequently input by the user, and an appearance frequency thereof is 2.9%. Furthermore, when the item “transmission destination” corresponds to “b”, the word “ryoukai” is the most frequently input by the user, and an appearance frequency thereof is 8.3%. The log data processor 310 transmits the data obtained as described above to a user classifying unit 311 and a master-user extracting unit 313.
The user classifying unit 311 performs a process of classifying users serving as data transmission sources into communities in accordance with data transmitted from the log data processor 310. The classification is performed in accordance with the data calculated by the log data processor 310 and the information on answers of a questionnaire transmitted from the users.
The user classifying unit 311 generates a table as shown in
The user classifying unit 311 generates, for example, communities for individual combinations of “transmission destinations” and “input words”, and performs the process of classifying users into the communities. Examples of communities generated in accordance with the parameters shown in
The user classifying unit 311 refers to values of appearance frequencies of input words in order to determine whether the words are “frequently-used” words.
It is recognized that, in a case of the user D shown in
Although an example of a case where community classification is performed using combinations of “transmission destinations” and “input words” in
Alternatively, communities may be generated by a combination of the log data and the parameters of the information on answers of a questionnaire. For example, a community “pictograms are frequently used and a word “ebisu” is frequently used for a boyfriend/girlfriend”, a community “confidence about keeping of civil tongue, a word “shinbashi” is frequently used, and a cellular phone is used for business”, and the like may be generated.
The community-display-ranking calculating unit 312 performs a process of calculating display ranks in an entire community in accordance with display ranking information of users who belong to the community. Detailed operations of the process are the same as those described with reference to
Examples of the master users in this embodiment include a person who uses proper Japanese, a person who fluently uses buzzwords such as words used by people in specific ages such as youngsters (for example, young women called “gals”), and a person who makes humorous sentences well. Specifically, examples of the master users include a specialist of Japanese language, an instructor of business manner training, and a person who speaks words which are unique to youngsters (so-called “gal words”). Furthermore, examples of users whose operation histories are remarkable include a user who sent the largest number of mails in a predetermined period of time, a user who uses the largest number of words per mail, and a user who sent the largest number of mails to a person who has the specific relationship with the user, such as a boyfriend/girlfriend.
The master-user extracting unit 313 outputs the display ranking information of the extracted master users to the community-display-ranking storage unit 315. Then, the community-display-ranking storage unit 315 associates the community display ranking information transmitted from the community-display-ranking calculating unit 312 and the display ranking information of the master users transmitted from the master-user extracting unit 313 with the user and stores them.
The display ranking information stored in the community-display-ranking storage unit 315 is transmitted to the cellular phone terminal 400 through the communication unit 304. In the cellular phone terminal 400, the display ranking information transmitted from the server 300 is stored in the second display-ranking storage unit 426. Then, the information is referred to in accordance with an instruction issued by a user when the display-character-candidate extracting unit 427 extracts character candidates.
By performing this operation, display ranking information of a community into which a user is classified and display ranking information of the master users are provided for the user. Furthermore, also in this embodiment, an item “list obtaining” is provided in a menu of the cellular phone terminal 400, and the user appropriately obtains desired display ranking information.
According to the configuration and the processes of this embodiment described above, display ranking information generated in accordance with operation histories of users in a community to which the user belongs whose operation histories are remarkable or famous people such as a specialist of Japanese language is provided. Accordingly, the user notices expressions and phrases in which the user has never thought of, and furthermore, the user may use the expressions and the phrases.
In this case, when the user performs a setting so as to use the display ranking information supplied from the server 300, character candidates are displayed so as to correspond to characters input by the user in the character candidate display unit 405 of the cellular phone terminal 400. By this, the user may learn information on specific usage of endings of sentences, information on positions of insertion of punctuation marks, information on words to be selected at appropriate timings, and may use them.
Furthermore, according to the configuration of this embodiment described above, the user may obtain display ranking information of a desired community among various communities included in the server 300. Accordingly, when a junior high-school student who likes to be a “gal” obtains display ranking information of a person who uses “gal words” registered as a master user, the student may effectively learn the “gal words”.
Note that, in the foregoing embodiments, the cases where the information signal processing apparatus is applied to the remote control apparatus and the cellular phone terminal are taken as examples. However, the information signal processing apparatus may be applied to other apparatuses including a mobile terminal such as a PDA (Personal Digital Assistants) and a word processor.
Furthermore, a series of processes of each of the foregoing embodiments described above may be executed by hardware or software. When the series of processes is executed by software, programs included in the software are installed in a computer incorporated in dedicated hardware or a general personal computer capable of executing various functions by installing various programs.
2L, 2R DISPLAY UNIT, 10 OPERATION UNIT, 10KY ARROW KEY, 10XA ENTER BUTTON, 10XB BACK BUTTON, 10XD DOWN BUTTON, 10XL LEFT BUTTON, 10XR RIGHT BUTTON, 10XU UP BUTTON, 11 CONTROLLER, 12 MEMORY, 13 REMOTE CONTROL SIGNAL GENERATING UNIT, 14 REMOTE CONTROL SIGNAL TRANSMISSION UNIT, 15 DISPLAY UNIT, 16 DISPLAY CONTROLLER, 17 COMMAND DISPLAY/INPUT UNIT, 17a, 17b, AND 17c COMMAND DISPLAY INPUT BUTTONS, 18 EXTERNAL STORAGE MEDIUM, 18 MEMORY, 19 I/F UNIT, 20 REMOTE CONTROL DEVICE, 26 FIRST DISPLAY-RANKING STORAGE UNIT, 40 REPRODUCTION SPEED DETERMINATION UNIT, 50 NETWORK, 61 CHARACTER INFORMATION EXTRACTING UNIT, 100 REPRODUCING DEVICE, 101 CONTROLLER, 102 MEMORY, 103 DECODER, 104 COMMUNICATION UNIT, 105 DISPLAY UNIT, 106 DISPLAY CONTROLLER, 107 EXTERNAL STORAGE MEDIUM, 108 I/F UNIT, 109 SIGNAL RECEIVING UNIT, 180 EXTERNAL STORAGE MEDIUM, 200 REMOTE CONTROL DEVICE, 201 OPERATION HISTORY STORAGE UNIT, 202 COMMAND STORAGE DETERMINATION UNIT, 203 INPUT-FREQUENCY CALCULATING UNIT, 204 SHIFTING-SPEED CALCULATING UNIT, 205 COMMAND-ASSOCIATION-DEGREE CALCULATING UNIT, 206 FIRST DISPLAY-RANKING STORAGE UNIT, 207 SECOND DISPLAY-RANKING STORAGE UNIT, 208 DISPLAY-COMMAND EXTRACTING UNIT, 300 SERVER, 301 CONTROLLER, 302 MEMORY, 303 STORAGE UNIT, 304 COMMUNICATION UNIT, 310 LOG DATA PROCESSOR, 311 USER CLASSIFYING UNIT, 312 COMMUNITY-DISPLAY-RANKING CALCULATING UNIT, 313 MASTER-USER EXTRACTING UNIT, 314 MASTER-USER-LIST STORAGE UNIT, 315 COMMUNITY-DISPLAY-RANKING STORAGE UNIT, 400 CELLULAR PHONE TERMINAL, 401 OPERATION UNIT, 402 CONTROLLER, 403 MEMORY, 404 DISPLAY UNIT, 405 CHARACTER CANDIDATE DISPLAY UNIT, 406 DISPLAY CONTROLLER, 407 EXTERNAL STORAGE MEDIUM, 408 I/F UNIT, 409 COMMUNICATION UNIT, 410 ANTENNA, 411 AUDIO CONTROLLER, 412 MICROPHONE, 413 SPEAKER, 420 INPUT-CHARACTER HISTORY STORAGE UNIT, 421 CHARACTER STORAGE DETERMINATION UNIT, 422 INPUT-FREQUENCY CALCULATING UNIT, 423 SHIFTING-SPEED CALCULATING UNIT, 424 CHARACTER-ASSOCIATION-DEGREE CALCULATING UNIT, 425 FIRST DISPLAY-RANKING STORAGE UNIT, 426 SECOND DISPLAY-RANKING STORAGE UNIT, 427 DISPLAY-CHARACTER-CANDIDATE EXTRACTING UNIT, A, B, C, AND D USER, Ar1 REGION, C1 COMMAND, CS1 AND CS10 CURSOR, EX1 MASTER, EX2 MASTER USER, KY ARROW KEY, MN1 AND MN10 MENU SCREEN, XY COMMUNITY, XA ENTER BUTTON, XB BUTTON, XD DOWN BUTTON, XL LEFT BUTTON, XR RIGHT BUTTON, XU UP BUTTON
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007-286452 | Nov 2007 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2008/069476 | 10/27/2008 | WO | 00 | 5/3/2010 |
