The present disclosure relates to a program, an information processing method, and an information processing apparatus.
With the spread of the Internet, various kinds of information are being provided via the Internet. Patent Document 1 discloses a healthcare server which provides, based on information on a healthcare subject, optimum advice with respect to a state of health, a nutritional status, or the like of the healthcare subject. The healthcare server disclosed in Patent Document 1 enables expert advice to be provided in accordance with nutritional information of the healthcare subject.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2019-23919
However, with conventional systems such as that disclosed in Patent Document 1, it is difficult to accurately comprehend detailed information on food (dietary content) consumed by a user and, in a state where detailed information cannot be collected, there is a problem in that it is difficult to provide appropriate advice in consideration of food (dietary content) consumed by the user or food specified by the user. In addition, conventional methods are limited to advising a subject in a passive manner and it is difficult to provide advice that supports a user in attaining a goal based on an item that is achieved by consuming a specific article of food.
The present disclosure has been devised in consideration of such circumstances and an object thereof is to provide a program or the like capable of providing a user with appropriate advice.
A program related to an aspect of the present disclosure causes a computer to execute processing of: acquiring, with respect to food purchased by a subscription system, user ingestion information related to food ingested by a user; outputting the acquired user ingestion information and identification information of the user to an information processing unit; acquiring advice information in accordance with the user ingestion information from the information processing unit; and displaying the acquired advice information on a display unit.
In an aspect of the present disclosure, a user can be provided with appropriate advice.
Hereinafter, a program, an information processing method, and an information processing apparatus according to the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to drawings illustrating embodiments thereof.
An information processing system which provides a user who purchases food being sold by a subscription system with various kinds of advice will be described. In the present embodiment, a subscription system refers to a sales system that, unlike conventional systems in which a fee is paid every time a product is purchased, enables a user to consume, as much as possible, products within a certain range within an arbitrary period (generally, within a period of a day or more) for a certain price. In such a sales system, for example, an upper limit of an amount of consumption of products during a predetermined period is set in accordance with an amount paid by the user and the user can consume products up to the upper limit of the amount of consumption within the predetermined period. When selling food by such a subscription system, for example, a predetermined amount (the upper limit of the amount of consumption) of food is delivered to the user at predetermined intervals and the user can select and eat whatever he/she wants whenever he/she wants from the delivered food. Although food purchased using a subscription system may become available to the user through any method such as hand-delivery from a sales clerk at a store and delivery to a residence or the like of the user, a method of delivery to the residence or the like of the user to ensure that the food is available whenever he/she wants to eat is preferable and a method of collectively delivering food to the user for a certain period of time is more preferable. Delivering food in bulk lowers the bar for placing food within reach of the user and the user can consume food while being more faithful to his/her own consumption desire. When collecting an amount of consumption of food (amount of ingested food) consumed by a user while being faithful to his/her consumption desire together with a date and time of consumption (date and time of ingestion), consumption information (ingestion information of food) that is faithful to the user's consumption desire can be collected. In addition, with a subscription system, collecting ingestion information in a product lineup also enables non-ingestion information of the food (information related to products which are included in the product lineup but were not consumed by the user despite being in a consumable state or, in other words, “food other than food purchased by the subscription system”) to be simultaneously comprehended. Therefore, unless otherwise designated in the present disclosure, in an embodiment using “ingestion information of subscription food (which may also be simply referred to as “ingestion information of food”)”, “non-ingestion information of subscription food” can also be used and, accordingly, unique information related to food consumed while being faithful to one's desire as will be described later can be obtained. Accordingly, a period during which information is acquired from the user is preferably long since a long period enables more useful consumption information to be obtained and, specifically, the period preferably extends for a week or more and more preferably extends for a month or more. Such consumption information is unique information that cannot be obtained by conventional sales systems involving decision-making with respect to a purchase by the user. In conventional sales systems, since only products purchased after the user determines whether or not to make a purchase become consumption objects, products that the user wants but were not purchased do not become consumption objects. In other words, as circumstances specific to the subscription system, consumption information may include not only product information on products consumed (purchased or ingested) by the user (which may also be simply referred to as “consumption information”) but also information related to products which are included in the product lineup but were not consumed by the user despite being in a consumable state (which may also be simply referred to as “non-consumption information”). In the food sector, such consumption information and non-consumption information (in particular, non-consumption information) with respect to subscription food are information not conventionally used, and unique information related to food consumed (or not consumed) by the user while being faithful to his/her desire can be obtained which completely differs from information which is based on food consumed by the user in a desultory manner (for example, everyday menus) and which had conventionally existed and information based on preference surveys (such as questionnaires) which may deviate from reality due to being biased such as carrying unconscious or conscious assumptions. Therefore, by collecting consumption information that considers products sold by the subscription system as consumption objects, consumption information that better reflects a consumption desire of the user than before can be collected. Note that, hereinafter, food that is sold by a subscription system according to the present embodiment will be referred to as “subscription food”.
In the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, the user terminal 20 performs various kinds of information processing such as processing of receiving various kinds of information related to the user having been input by the user and processing of transmitting the received information to the server 10. The server 10 performs various kinds of information processing such as processing of registering information related to the user having been received from the user terminal 20 and processing of providing each user with advice based on registered information. The server 10 may be equipped with a function of a web server and a food sales site (not illustrated) that accepts a purchase request and the like with respect to subscription foods via the network N may be disclosed on the network N.
The storage unit 12 includes a RAM (Random Access Memory), a flash memory, a hard disk, and an SSD (Solid State Drive). The storage unit 12 stores, in advance, the control program 12P to be executed by the control unit 11, various kinds of data necessary for executing the control program 12P, and the like. In addition, the storage unit 12 temporarily stores data and the like that are generated when the control unit 11 executes the control program 12P. Furthermore, the storage unit 12 stores a product information DB (database) 12a, a sales set DB 12b, a member information DB 12c, an advice DB 12d, and the like. The product information DB 12a, the sales set DB 12b, the member information DB 12c, and the advice DB 12d may be stored in another storage apparatus connected to the server 10 or may be stored in another storage apparatus which the server 10 can communicate with.
The communication unit 13 is an interface for connecting to the network N by wired communication or wireless communication and transmits and receives information to and from other apparatuses via the network N. The input unit 14 includes, for example, a mouse and a keyboard, accepts an operation input by a manager who manages the server 10, and sends a control signal corresponding to operation contents to the control unit 11. The display unit 15 is a liquid crystal display, an organic EL display, or the like and displays various kinds of information in accordance with an instruction from the control unit 11. The input unit 14 and the display unit 15 may be an integrally-configured touch panel.
The reading unit 16 reads information stored on a portable storage medium 1a including a CD (Compact Disc)-ROM, a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc)-ROM, a USB (Universal Serial Bus) memory, or an SD (Secure Digital) card. The control program 12P and various kinds of data stored in the storage unit 12 can be read by the control unit 11 from the portable storage medium 1a via the reading unit 16 and stored in the storage unit 12. Alternatively, the control program 12P and various kinds of data stored in the storage unit 12 can be downloaded by the control unit 11 from another apparatus via the communication unit 13 and stored in the storage unit 12.
The user terminal 20 includes a control unit 21, a storage unit 22, a communication unit 23, an input unit 24, a display unit 25, a reading unit 26, and a camera 27 and the respective units are connected to each other via a bus. Since the respective units 21 to 26 of the user terminal 20 are configured in a similar manner to the respective units 11 to 16 of the server 10, detailed descriptions of the configurations will be omitted. In addition to a control program 22P to be executed by the control unit 21, the storage unit 22 of the user terminal 20 stores an advice application program 22AP (hereinafter, referred to as an advice app 22AP) which is a program according to the present disclosure and which is used to perform processing of acquiring, from the server 10, appropriate advice in accordance with various kinds of information (user information) related to the diet, exercise, sleep, and the like of the user. Furthermore, the storage unit 22 may be configured to store various kinds of information (user information) related to the diet, exercise, sleep, and the like of the user having been input via, for example, the input unit 24. In addition to an interface for connecting to the network N, the communication unit 23 of the user terminal 20 includes an interface for communicating with the wearable device 30 in a wireless manner. Alternatively, the communication unit 23 may be configured to communicate with the wearable device 30 by wired communication via a cable.
The camera 27 has a lens, an imaging element, and the like and acquires image data by photoelectrically converting light incident via the lens with the imaging element. The camera 27 performs photography in accordance with an instruction from the control unit 21, sequentially sends acquired image data (photographed images) to the storage unit 22, and causes the storage unit 22 to store the image data (photographed images). Besides a configuration in which the camera 27 is a built-in camera, the user terminal 20 may be configured to include a camera connecting unit to which an external camera can be connected or configured to include a camera communication unit that communicates in a wireless manner to an external camera. In this case, the camera connecting unit or the camera communication unit accepts input of image data acquired by the external camera, sequentially sends the input image data to the storage unit 22, and causes the storage unit 22 to store the image data.
The sales set DB 12b stores information related to a product set that is a sales object. The sales set DB 12b shown in
The member information DB 12c stores information related to a user having registered as a member in order to get various kinds of advice from the server 10. The member information DB 12c shown in
The member ID stored in the member information DB 12c is issued by the control unit 11 and stored every time information of a user to newly register as a member is registered. Other information stored in the member information DB 12c is stored by the control unit 11 when the control unit 11 acquires each piece of information on the user via, for example, the communication unit 13 or the input unit 14 and changed by the control unit 11 when the control unit 11 acquires a change instruction via the communication unit 13 or the input unit 14. Each of biological information, exercise information, sleep information, a purchase history, and an ingestion history stored in the member information DB 12c is accumulated (additionally stored) in the member information DB 12c by the control unit 11 every time each piece of information is acquired by the control unit 11 from the user terminal 20 via the communication unit 13. The stored contents of the member information DB 12c are not limited to the example shown in
The advice DB 12d stores information related to advice to be provided to the user (the user terminal 20). The advice DB 12d shown in
Hereinafter, processing performed by each apparatus when the user registers information (user information) related to the user in the server 10 using the user terminal 20 in the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment will be described.
In the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, when the user wishes to register or change his/her own information (user information), the user inputs the user information using the user terminal 20 to transmit the user information to the server 10 and causes the server 10 to register the user information. The user causes an input screen (registration screen) of user information to be displayed on the user terminal 20 by having the user terminal 20 open the advice app 22AP and inputs user information via the input screen. In addition, when the user terminal 20 stores a web browser for viewing websites via the network N in the storage unit 22, the user may access the server 10 by having the user terminal 20 open the browser and acquire an input screen (registration screen) of user information from the server 10.
When the control unit 21 of the user terminal 20 accepts a start instruction of the advice app 22AP from the user via the input unit 24, the control unit 21 opens the advice app 22AP. Subsequently, when the control unit 21 accepts an instruction to register or change user information via the input unit 24, the control unit 21 displays a registration screen such as that shown in
First, the control unit 21 determines whether or not an input instruction with respect to any piece of user information among the profile, the physical information, and the information on exercise/sleep has been accepted on the screen shown in
In addition, when the physical information is selected on the screen shown in
In addition, when the information on exercise/sleep is selected on the screen shown in
The user inputs each piece of information that can be input to each input field on input screens such as those shown in
The input screens shown in
The control unit 11 of the server 10 acquires the user information transmitted by the user terminal 20 and registers the acquired user information in the member information DB 12c (S17). Specifically, the control unit 11 acquires the member ID and the user information from the user terminal 20 and stores, in association with the acquired member ID, each piece of information of the acquired user information in the member information DB 12c. With information already stored in the member information DB 12c, each piece of information newly acquired from the user terminal 20 may be added and stored or may be stored by overwriting the stored information. In addition, each piece of information included in user information may be stored in association with a current date and time (date and time of update). When each piece of information acquired from the user terminal 20 is sequentially added and stored, the server 10 can acquire user information of a time series from the user terminal 20 and accumulate time-series user information. Furthermore, when each piece of information is to be stored by overwriting stored information, the server 10 can hold latest user information.
After storing user information acquired from the user terminal 20 in the member information DB 12c, the control unit 11 notifies the user terminal 20 of completion of registration of the user information (S18). When notified of completion of registration by the server 10, the control unit 21 of the user terminal 20 displays a screen showing completion of registration of the user information on the display unit 25 (S19). Instead of displaying a registration completion screen of user information, the control unit 21 may return display to an initial screen of the input screen (registration screen) by causing the display unit 25 to display the screen shown in
Next, the control unit 21 determines whether or not an input instruction with respect to information on diet (user information) has been accepted on the screen shown in
The “eaten amount” input field is provided with a pull-down menu that enables any numerical value to be selected from predetermined numerical values, and any numerical value can be input using the pull-down menu. When an article of food with a paste-like form is input as eaten food, the pull-down menu is configured so that grams (weight) can be selected, and when an article of food with a stick shape is input, the pull-down menu is configured so that the number of sticks can be selected. The input fields of the date on which a product had been eaten and the time slot during which the product had been eaten (ingestion timing) are respectively provided with a pull-down menu that enables any date and any time slot to be selected from a plurality of dates and a plurality of time slots, and any date and any time slot can be input using the pull-down menus. The input screen for information on diet is not limited to the configuration shown in
The user inputs each piece of information of a product name of an article of subscription food that the user had eaten, an amount eaten by the user, and a date and time (date, time slot) at which the user had eaten the article of subscription food to each input field on an input screen such as that shown in
The control unit 11 (acquiring unit) of the server 10 acquires the information on diet (user ingestion information) transmitted by the user terminal 20 and registers the acquired information on diet in the member information DB 12c (S25). Specifically, the control unit 11 acquires the member ID and the information on diet from the user terminal 20 and stores the acquired information on diet in an ingestion history stored in the member information DB 12c in association with the acquired member ID. In this case, the control unit 11 causes the information on diet acquired from the user terminal 20 to be stored by being added to the ingestion history already stored in the member information DB 12c. After storing the information on diet acquired from the user terminal 20 in the member information DB 12c, the control unit 11 notifies the user terminal 20 of completion of registration of the information on diet (S26). When notified of completion of registration by the server 10, the control unit 21 of the user terminal 20 displays a screen showing completion of registration of the information on diet on the display unit 25 (S27). Even in this case, instead of displaying a registration completion screen of information on diet, the control unit 21 may return display to an initial screen of the registration screen by causing the display unit 25 to display the screen shown in
Furthermore, the control unit 21 determines whether or not an input instruction (change instruction) with respect to purchase contents has been accepted on the screen shown in
When the user wishes to change a product set or a product to be purchased, the user inputs or changes each piece of information displayed in each input field to purchase contents that the user wishes to change on an input screen such as that shown in
The control unit 11 of the server 10 acquires the purchase contents transmitted by the user terminal 20 and registers the acquired purchase contents in the member information DB 12c (S33). Specifically, the control unit 11 acquires the member ID and the purchase contents from the user terminal 20 and stores the acquired purchase contents in a purchased set stored in the member information DB 12c in association with the acquired member ID. In this case, the control unit 11 may store the purchase contents newly acquired from the user terminal 20 by overwriting the purchased set already stored in the member information DB 12c with the newly acquired purchase contents. After storing the purchase contents acquired from the user terminal 20 in the member information DB 12c, the control unit 11 notifies the user terminal 20 of completion of registration of the purchase contents (S34). When notified of completion of registration by the server 10, the control unit 21 of the user terminal 20 displays a screen showing completion of registration (change) of the purchase contents on the display unit 25 (S35). Even in this case, instead of displaying a registration completion screen of purchase contents, the control unit 21 may return display to an initial screen of the registration screen by causing the display unit 25 to display the screen shown in
Due to the processing described above, in the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, user information such as attribute information, profile information, information related to a physical state (biological information), information related to exercise, and information related to sleep of the user, a type, an amount (ingestion amount), and an ingestion timing of articles of food eaten by the user, and the like are input using the user terminal 20 and registered in the server 10. It should be noted that user information includes a vegetarianism level of the user, information (preference information) related to preferences and principles of the user with respect to diet, a trend of thought of the user in daily life (what the user is conscious of), and the like. In addition, the user information may include information (action information) related to lifestyle habits (actions that have become habits) in daily life including exercise and sleep and information on bodily functions (pain, numbness, a range of joint motion, flexibility of body, posture, muscle strength, capacity of balance, locomotive function, and oral function) in daily life. Moreover, the user information may include comments sent by the user with respect to a change in a physical condition or an emotional change caused by eating subscription food, comments with respect to stress in daily life, comments with respect to work efficiency of studying, working, or the like, comments with respect to cognition such as memory or forgetfulness, or information (shared information) with respect to subscription food, recipes of dishes using subscription food, or the like which the user wishes to recommend to other users, and the like. Furthermore, due to the processing described above, in the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, purchase contents (order contents) of products that the user wishes to purchase can be changed using the user terminal 20. In addition to information related to an ingestion amount and an ingestion timing of food ingested by the user with respect to subscription food, combining the input information (in particular, action information and/or biological information) described earlier enables more appropriate advice (such as advice in accordance with a present or future disease risk or advice in accordance with a score based on various criteria to be described later) to be provided to the user. Furthermore, when subscription food is an article of food containing an effective amount or more of any nutrient to be described later or an article of food containing a nutrient and a useful component, advice can be more preferably be given based on health functionality that can be expected by the nutrient, by the useful component, or by both the nutrient and the useful component.
As described above, the server 10 sequentially registers various kinds of information with respect to the user and provides the user with appropriate advice in accordance with the registered information. Next, processing performed by each apparatus when the server 10 provides advice in accordance with user information of each user in the information processing system 100 will be described.
In the information processing system 100, when the user wishes to receive advice from the server 10, the user causes the user terminal 20 to open the advice app 22AP and makes a request for advice to the server 10 via the advice app 22AP. The user can cause a home screen (start screen) to be displayed on the user terminal 20 by having the user terminal 20 open the advice app 22AP and can make a request for advice via the home screen. When the control unit 21 of the user terminal 20 accepts a start instruction of the advice app 22AP from the user via the input unit 24, the control unit 21 opens the advice app 22AP and displays the home screen on the display unit 25. Subsequently, when the control unit 21 accepts a request instruction of an advice via the input unit 24, the control unit 21 makes a request for advice to the server 10. Alternatively, the control unit 21 may make a request for advice to the server 10 once the advice app 22AP is started without accepting a request instruction from the user. In this case, the user need only perform an operation of starting the advice app 22AP and need not perform an operation with respect to a request instruction of an advice. In addition, after starting the advice app 22AP (in other words, when the advice app 22AP is running), the control unit 21 may make a request for advice to the server 10 on a regular basis or every time a time of day set in advance arrives.
When the control unit 21 of the user terminal 20 starts the advice app 22AP, the control unit 21 determines whether or not a timing of requesting the server 10 for advice has arrived (S41). For example, when the control unit 21 accepts a request instruction for an advice via the home screen, the control unit 21 determines that a request timing for an advice has arrived. In addition, the control unit 21 may determine that a request timing for an advice has arrived when performing start processing of the advice app 22AP or determine that a request timing for an advice has arrived when a predetermined period of time elapses or when a time of day set in advance arrives. When the control unit 21 determines that a request timing for an advice has not arrived (S41: NO), the control unit 21 stands by while performing other kinds of processing.
When the control unit 21 determines that a request timing for an advice has arrived (S41: YES), the control unit 21 makes a request for an advice to the server 10 (S42). Specifically, the control unit 21 transmits the member ID of the user and a request signal for requesting an advice to the server 10. When the control unit 11 of the server 10 accepts a request for an advice from the user terminal 20, the control unit 11 reads user information stored in the member information DB 12c in association with the member ID received from the user terminal 20 (S43). In addition, the control unit 11 (information processing unit) generates appropriate advice information with respect to the read user information based on stored contents of the advice DB 12d (S44). The control unit 11 generates advice information to be provided in consideration of at least a part of the user information stored in the member information DB 12c, a time slot (time of day) in which the request for an advice had been made, and the like. For example, based on ingestion history of the user read from the member information DB 12c, the control unit 11 may compare an ingestion amount of a nutrient ingested by the user with a recommended target ingestion amount, read advice contents stored in the advice DB 12d in association with a result of the comparison (a state of excess or deficiency with respect to a nutrient), and generate advice information to be provided using the read advice contents. The target ingestion amount of a nutrient may be acquired from an external apparatus and set or the user himself/herself may set the target ingestion amount of a nutrient. In addition, the comparison with the target ingestion amount of a nutrient may be performed using, for example, a daily ingestion amount or an ingestion amount for every predetermined time such as every 12 hours, every 6 hours, every 3 hours, or every hour. At this point, when deficient nutrients can be replenished by subscription food purchased by the user, the control unit 11 may generate advice information related to eating the purchased subscription food and a timing of eating the purchased subscription food (ingestion method) and a recipe of a dish using the purchased subscription food (cooking method). Therefore, by generating advice information in accordance with a state of excess or deficiency of a nutrient based on an ingestion amount in a predetermined time, an advice that enables the user to readily remedy the state of excess or deficiency of the nutrient can be provided. In addition, when there is subscription food that can replenish a deficient nutrient, the control unit 11 may generate advice information that recommends purchasing the subscription food. In this case, promotion of sales of the subscription food can be expected. Furthermore, advice information related to ingredients, articles of food, and recipes of dishes that enable the deficient nutrient to be replenished including ingredients and articles of food other than subscription food may be generated.
In addition, the control unit 11 may generate advice information using advice contents registered in the advice DB 12d in association with the age, sex, birthplace, thought and creed, or the like of the user or may generate advice information using advice contents registered in the advice DB 12d in association with a vegetarianism level, preference information, a trend of thought, or the like of the user. In this case, advice information can be generated which takes into consideration an attribute of the user, preferences with respect to ingredients and articles of food, principles, attitude, and the like. Furthermore, the control unit 11 may generate advice information using advice contents registered in the advice DB 12d in association with a physical state indicated by biological information, an amount of exercise indicated by exercise information, an amount of sleep indicated by sleep information, and the like of the user. In this case, advice information can be generated which takes into consideration a physical state, an amount of exercise, an amount of sleep, and the like of the user. In addition, when using time-series information such as an ingestion history, biological information, exercise information, and sleep information, the control unit 11 may generate advice information in accordance with a physical state, an amount of exercise, an amount of sleep, and the like of the user as specified from information at any time point or during any period. Furthermore, with respect to a user who continuously consumes subscription food, the control unit 11 can generate advice information in accordance with a trend of consumption of subscription food by the user based on ingestion history of subscription food of the user. In this manner, based on user information, the control unit 11 generates advice related to actions (lifestyle habits) in the daily life of the user such as diet, exercise, and sleep and generates advice information related to a psychosomatic state (stress, work efficiency, or bodily functions) in the daily life of the user. In this case, advice information can be generated based on comments sent by the user with respect to a change in a physical condition or an emotional change caused by eating subscription food, comments with respect to stress in daily life, comments with respect to work efficiency of studying, working, or the like, comments with respect to cognition such as memory or forgetfulness, and the like.
Note that subscription food according to the present embodiment includes articles of food having been manufactured so as to include not only an edible part of an ingredient but also an inedible part thereof. An “inedible part” of an ingredient according to the present disclosure refers to a portion that is usually not suitable for eating and a portion that is discarded in the usual dietary habit and specifically, for example, refers to a refuse portion as described in “Standards Tables of Food Composition in Japan—2015—(Seventh Revised Edition)” (a food composition table set by The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare). In addition, while ingredients used in subscription food according to the present embodiment may be any kind of food served for human consumption (food described in “Standards Tables of Food Composition in Japan—2015—(Seventh Revised Edition)”), the ingredients are preferably plants or, in other words, edible plants, and among the food groups described in “Standards Tables of Food Composition in Japan—2015—(Seventh Revised Edition)”, pulses, nuts and seeds, vegetables, cereals, fruits, potatoes, mushrooms, and algae can be used as plants. An “edible part” of an ingredient refers to a portion obtained by subtracting the refused portion (inedible part) from the entire ingredient. The inedible part of an ingredient has poor compatibility with ingestion characteristics or other ingredients and, generally, the inedible part is often discarded without being eaten. However, when subscription food according to the present embodiment contains an inedible part of an ingredient, a discarded amount of the ingredient can be reduced. Therefore, by eating subscription food according to the present embodiment, a load of discard processing of the ingredient (inedible part) on earth's environment can be reduced and a contribution can be made to protecting earth's environment. Accordingly, in addition to generating an advice related to diet and nutrients based on the ingestion history of the user, the control unit 11 may also generate advice information related to a contribution toward protecting earth's environment. Even in this case, the control unit 11 can generate advice information related to a contribution toward protecting earth's environment using advice contents registered in the advice DB 12d in association with each article of subscription food and an ingestion amount of the subscription food. Furthermore, subscription food according to the present embodiment preferably contains both an edible part and an inedible part of ingredients, more preferably contains both an edible part and an inedible part of a same type of ingredients, and most preferably contains both an edible part and an inedible part of a same individual ingredient of a same type.
As described above, in the present embodiment, advice information to be provided to the user is generated in accordance with at least a part of user information. When a plurality of pieces of advice information are generated based on stored contents of the advice DB 12d, the control unit 11 may adopt all of the pieces of generated advice information as advice information to be provided or adopt one piece of randomly selected advice information as advice information to be provided. In addition, by setting a priority to each advice stored in the advice DB 12d, when a plurality of pieces of advice information are generated, advice information with a high priority may be adopted as advice information to be provided.
A content of any nutrient in subscription food according to the present embodiment is preferably equal to or larger than an effective amount (for example, equal to or larger than a criterion value that enables a nutrition claim to be made according to the Food Labeling Act). In addition, subscription food preferably contains one or two or more useful components. A useful component as described above refers to a component other than the nutrients defined in Appendix No. 9 of Food Labeling Standards (Cabinet Office Order No. 10 of 2015) which is useful in maintaining or improving health, motor function, beauty care, and the like, and specific examples include polyphenols, carotenoids, chlorophyll, and vitamin U. Specifically, a content of a nutrient is preferably an amount that enables making a claim that supplementation is possible, a claim that appropriate ingestion is possible, a claim regarding non-addition, an absolute claim (a “high” claim or a “source” claim), an absolute claim (a “free” claim or a “low” claim), a relative claim (an “increased” claim or a “reduced” claim), a non-addition claim (sugars, sodium salts, and the like), and the like. Furthermore, specifically, subscription food has a dietary fiber content (particularly, an insoluble dietary fiber content) of preferably 3 percent by mass or more, more preferably 4 percent by mass or more, more preferably 5 percent by mass or more, more preferably 6 percent by mass or more, more preferably 7 percent by mass or more, more preferably 8 percent by mass or more, and even more preferably 9 percent by mass or more, and an amount of dietary fiber (particularly, an amount of insoluble dietary fiber) contained in one serving size (which corresponds to an amount in which the subscription food is eaten in one sitting, and in the case of a product that comes in a single-serving size, one product) is 1 g or more, more preferably 2 g or more, and more preferably 3 g or more. Subscription food containing such a nutrient is preferable since an ingestion amount of the nutrient contained in the food by the user in a specific period can be collected from the user together with a date and time of consumption, an effective ingestion timing and ingestion method of the nutrient which were unknowable in the past can now be known and, by extension, a more effective ingestion timing and ingestion method than in the past can be proposed to the user. In addition, subscription food according to the present embodiment is preferably a useful ingredient containing the nutrient or the useful component described above, more preferably an article of food (dietary fiber-containing food) that is manufactured using an ingredient containing dietary fiber (particularly, preferably derived from a localized site of dietary fiber and more preferably derived from an inedible part of the ingredient), and more preferably an article of food (insoluble dietary fiber-containing food) that is manufactured using an ingredient containing insoluble dietary fiber (particularly, preferably derived from a localized site of insoluble dietary fiber and more preferably derived from an inedible part of the ingredient). A localized site of insoluble dietary fiber is a site where insoluble dietary fiber is localized among an entire ingredient and, specifically, refers to a site with a higher insoluble dietary fiber content ratio than an insoluble dietary fiber content ratio in an edible part. A localized site of insoluble dietary fiber according to the present disclosure represents a site where insoluble dietary fiber is localized among an entire ingredient and, specifically, represents a site with a higher insoluble dietary fiber content ratio than that of an edible part in the ingredient, and represents a site having an insoluble dietary fiber content ratio in a dry state that is more preferably 1.1 times or more than that of the edible part, further preferably 1.2 times or more, further preferably 1.3 times or more, further preferably 1.4 times or more, further preferably 1.5 times or more, further preferably 1.6 times or more, further preferably 1.7 times or more, further preferably 1.8 times or more, further preferably 1.9 times or more, and most preferably 2.0 times or more. In addition, an insoluble dietary fiber content ratio in a localized site of insoluble dietary fiber (particularly, an inedible part) in terms of dry mass is preferably more than 10 percent by mass, more preferably more than 11 percent by mass, more preferably more than 12 percent by mass, more preferably more than 13 percent by mass, more preferably more than 14 percent by mass, more preferably more than 15 percent by mass, more preferably more than 16 percent by mass, more preferably more than 17 percent by mass, more preferably more than 18 percent by mass, more preferably more than 19 percent by mass, and even more preferably more than 20 percent by mass. Furthermore, a similar description applies to a localized site of dietary fiber. “In terms of dry mass” as used in the present disclosure indicates a dry mass value when there is 0 percent by mass of moisture. An amount of moisture in a sample can be measured according to Standards Tables of Food Composition in Japan—2015—(Seventh Revised Edition). While a localized site of dietary fiber or a localized site of insoluble dietary fiber according to the present disclosure may be a part of an “edible part” (for example, a seed coat portion of vegetables, cereals, pulses, or fruits and, particularly, the seed coat portion of pulses) or an “inedible part” of an ingredient described earlier, a localized site of insoluble dietary fiber is preferably an “inedible part”. In addition, a content of a localized site of dietary fiber or a localized site of insoluble dietary fiber (particularly, an inedible part) with respect to a total mass of all articles of food purchased by the subscription system according to the present disclosure is preferably 1 percent by mass or more, more preferably 3 percent by mass or more, and even more preferably 5 percent by mass or more. On the other hand, while an upper limit is not usually set, the upper limit may be preferably set to 70 percent by mass or less, more preferably set to 60 percent by mass or less, and even more preferably set to 50 percent by mass or less. Furthermore, a content of all ingredients including a localized site of dietary fiber or a localized site of insoluble dietary fiber (particularly, an inedible part) with respect to a total mass of all articles of food purchased by the subscription system according to the present disclosure is preferably 3 percent by mass or more, more preferably 5 percent by mass or more, and even more preferably 9 percent by mass or more. On the other hand, while an upper limit is not usually set, the upper limit may be preferably set to 70 percent by mass or less, more preferably set to 60 percent by mass or less, and even more preferably set to 50 percent by mass or less. Generally, since an inedible part of an ingredient contains a large amount of dietary fiber or insoluble dietary fiber, manufacturing an article of food so as to include not only an edible part of an ingredient but also an inedible part of the ingredient as in the case of subscription food according to the present embodiment is preferable because food enabling nutrients of ingredients to be ingested without waste can be provided. Therefore, subscription food according to the present embodiment is food which enables nutrients such as dietary fiber to be ingested in an efficient manner and which enables a discarded amount to be reduced.
The control unit 11 of the server 10 may generate advice information according to user information of each user using a learned model having been trained by machine learning or deep learning. In this case, for example, a learned model can be used which has been trained to receive at least a part of the user information stored in the member information DB 12c, a time slot (time of day) in which a request for an advice had been made, and the like as input, compute optimal advice information based on the input information, and output a result of the computation (advice information). Such a learned model can be constructed with, for example, a CNN (Convolution Neural Network), an RNN (Recurrent Neural Network), or an LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory).
Each piece of data input to the input node is input to the intermediate layer. The intermediate layer has a plurality of (in
When generating advice information in accordance with user information such as the age, sex, the birthplace, or the thought and creed of the user, a learning model may be used which receives information on the age, sex, the birthplace, or the thought and creed of the user as input and which is trained to specify advice to be provided when these pieces of information are input. When generating advice information in accordance with user information such as the vegetarianism level, preference information, the trend of thought, or the like of the user, a learning model may be used which receives information on the vegetarianism level, preference information, or the trend of thought of the user as input and which is trained to specify advice to be provided when these pieces of information are input. Furthermore, when generating advice information in accordance with user information such as exercise information or sleep information of the user, a learning model may be used which receives information on the exercise information or the sleep information of the user as input and which is trained to specify advice to be provided when these pieces of information are input. In this manner, by training a learning model to receive user information to be taken into consideration when specifying advice information as input and to specify advice contents suitable for input user information, an optimal advice can be specified with respect to any piece of user information. Specifying an advice using such a learning model enables an advice that takes the user's physical state (physical condition) into consideration to be generated. In addition, when using a learning model, a different learning model may be used for each timing where an advice is provided. For example, advice in accordance with user information may be specified using a different learning model for each season, a different learning model for each time slot, and the like. In this case, an optimal advice that also takes a timing (a season, a time slot, or the like) of providing the advice into consideration can be generated.
A learning model such as that described above is trained using training data in which user information to be input and an advice ID of an advice corresponding to the user information is handled as a set. The learning model shown in
When the control unit 11 generates advice information in accordance with user information, the control unit 11 (output unit) transmits (outputs) an advice screen displaying the advice information as shown in
Due to the processing described above, in the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, the server 10 can generate and provide appropriate advice to be provided to a user based on user information registered in the member information DB 12c. The advice provided by the server 10 may be contents generated based on at least a part of user information registered in the member information DB 12c and may be contents that differ in accordance with a timing (a time of day or a time slot) at which the advice is provided. Accordingly, based on information related to the user such as attribute information, profile information, physical information, exercise information, and sleep information of the user, information on subscription food eaten by the user, and the like, the server 10 can provide various kinds of advice related to lifestyle habits in actions of the user including diet, exercise, and sleep, various kinds of advice related to a psychosomatic state (stress, work efficiency, or bodily functions) in the daily life of the user, and advice with respect to a contribution toward protecting earth's environment. By appropriately setting a provision condition of advice in accordance with contents of the advice, an appropriate advice to be provided to the user in accordance with various kinds of information related to the user can be generated. In the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, the user terminal 20 can also be configured to generate advice information in accordance with user information. For example, when the user terminal 20 stores user information and the advice DB 12d in the storage unit 22, the control unit 21 can specify advice contents in accordance with the user information based on stored contents of the advice DB 12d. In addition, even when the user terminal 20 stores a learning model in the storage unit 22 in addition to user information and the advice DB 12d, the control unit 21 can specify advice contents in accordance with the user information using the learning model.
In the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, the server 10 is not limited to a configuration in which advice to be provided to the user is generated and provided in accordance with an advice request from the user terminal 20. For example, the server 10 may generate and provide advice to be provided to the user on a regular basis or when a time of day set in advance arrives. In such a configuration, for example, when a predetermined period elapses or when a set time of day arrives, the control unit 11 of the server 10 generates advice information to be provided to each user based on user information of each user registered in the member information DB 12c and stores the advice information in the storage unit 12 in association with the member ID of each user. Alternatively, the control unit 11 may store a date and time at which the advice information had been generated in the storage unit 12 in addition to the member ID and the advice information. On the other hand, the user terminal 20 may be configured to access the server 10 and acquire advice information upon starting the advice app 22AP and display the acquired advice information on the home screen (start screen).
The home screen shown in
In addition, the home screen may be configured to display detailed information related to biological information of the user. For example, when a display instruction of detailed information related to blood pressure of the user is accepted, the control unit 21 acquires biological information related to blood pressure from the server 10 and, based on the acquired biological information, displays a trend of daily blood pressure. In addition, when a display instruction of detailed information related to the weight of the user is accepted, the control unit 21 acquires biological information related to the weight from the server 10 and, based on the acquired biological information, generates and displays a graph indicating a trend of daily weight. By displaying a trend of biological information in this manner, the user can comprehend a change in his/her own physical state. The advice screen shown in
In the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, the user terminal 20 may be configured to accept an evaluation by the user with respect to advice contents acquired from the server 10. According to such a configuration, an evaluation by the user can be fed back to advice contents, and by updating advice contents with a low evaluation, advice that is effective to the user can be prepared. For example, the screen shown in
The information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment is not limited to a configuration in which advice to be provided to the user of the user terminal 20 is generated by the server 10 and, for example, advice may be generated by the user terminal 20 and displayed on the display unit 25. In this case, a configuration can be adopted in which the user terminal 20 stores various pieces of user information and the advice DB 12d input via the input unit 24 in the storage unit 22 and the control unit 21 (information processing unit) generates advice information in accordance with at least a part of the user information stored in the storage unit 22 based on stored contents of the advice DB 12d.
An information processing system will be described in which not only subscription food but food other than subscription food (hereinafter, referred to as general food) is also considered an ingestion object (consumption object) and an ingestion history of each user registered in the server 10 also includes ingestion information of general food. Since the information processing system according to the present embodiment can be realized by a similar apparatus to that of the information processing system according to the first embodiment, a description of a configuration will be omitted. The ingestion history stored in the member information DB 12c in the server 10 according to the present embodiment includes not only information on subscription food eaten by the user and a date and time at which the subscription food had been eaten (date and time of ingestion) but also includes information on general food eaten by the user and a date and time at which the general food had been eaten. Instead of information on the subscription food and the general food eaten by the user, the ingestion history may store information on energy and nutrients ingested by the user by eating the subscription food and the general food.
In the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, the user terminal 20 not only performs processing of accepting ingestion information of food eaten by the user according to input from the input unit 24 but also performs processing of accepting ingestion information by photographing food eaten by the user with the camera 27. In addition, when acquiring a photographed image of food eaten by the user from the user terminal 20, the server 10 analyzes the photographed image and performs processing of specifying information on the food eaten by the user or specifying information on nutrients ingested through the food eaten by the user. Besides a configuration in which the server 10 performs processing of specifying information on food eaten by the user or information on nutrients ingested by the user from a photographed image, a configuration may be adopted in which the user terminal 20 performs the same processing. In this case, the user terminal 20 specifies information on food eaten by the user or information on nutrients ingested by the user by analyzing an image photographed by the camera 27 and transmits specified ingestion information to the server 10.
In the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, the user terminal 20 and the server 10 perform processing similar to steps S11 to S22 in
In step S21, the user terminal 20 according to the present embodiment displays an input screen of information on diet such as that shown in
The user inputs each piece of information of subscription food that the user had eaten and a date and a time slot at which the user had eaten the subscription food to each input field on the input screen shown in
When the control unit 11 of the server 10 according to the present embodiment acquires information on diet from the user terminal 20, the control unit 11 determines whether or not the information includes a photographed image (S54). When it is determined that a photographed image is included (S54: YES), the control unit 11 analyzes the photographed image and specifies contents of the meal eaten by the user (S55). For example, the control unit 11 specifies a type of articles of food, ingredients, and dishes that appear in the photographed image by, for example, template matching. In this case, a template indicating an image feature amount extracted from a photographed image created by photographing articles of food, ingredients, and dishes is stored in the storage unit 12 in advance, and when the control unit 11 detects a region matching the template from the photographed image, the control unit 11 specifies that the detected region is a region of an article of food, an ingredient, or a dish corresponding to the template. The control unit 11 specifies all articles of food, ingredients, and dishes included in the photographed image. Instead of specifying the articles of food, ingredients, and dishes included in the photographed image, the control unit 11 may be configured to specify a type and an ingestion amount of nutrients that are ingested by eating the articles of food, ingredients, and dishes included in the photographed image. Alternatively, the control unit 11 may specify types of the articles of food, ingredients, and dishes included in the photographed image using a learned model having been trained in advance with respect to various articles of food, ingredients, dishes, and the like by machine learning or deep learning. In this case, a learning model may be used which has been trained to receive a photographed image as an input and to output a type and an amount of an article of food, an ingredient, or a dish in the input photographed image. Alternatively, the learning model may be a model trained to output, when a photographed image is input, a type and an ingestion amount of nutrients that are ingested by eating the articles of food, ingredients, and dishes that appear in the photographed image. Such a learned model can be constructed by, for example, a CNN.
When the control unit 11 determines that a photographed image is not included in the information on diet acquired from the user terminal 20 (S54: NO), the control unit 11 skips processing of step S55. Subsequently, the control unit 11 registers the information on diet acquired from the user terminal 20 and information on diet specified from a photographed image in the member information DB 12c (S25). Accordingly, besides ingestion information input via an input field on the input screen of the user terminal 20, contents of a meal (ingestion information) photographed by the camera 27 of the user terminal 20 is registered in the member information DB 12c. Subsequently, the control unit 11 of the server 10 and the control unit 21 of the user terminal 20 execute processing of step S26 and thereafter.
According to the processing described above, the user terminal 20 can transmit an image obtained by photographing a meal eaten by the user to the server 10, and the server 10 can acquire contents of the meal (articles of food, ingredients, and dishes) that appear in the photographed image received from the user terminal 20. Accordingly, even in the present embodiment, information (user information) such as attribute information, profile information, information related to a physical state (biological information), information related to exercise, and information related to sleep of the user, a type, an amount (ingestion amount), and an ingestion timing of articles of food eaten by the user, and the like can be input using the user terminal 20 and registered in the server 10. In addition, when a meal is to be photographed immediately before the user eats the meal, since a date and time of photography can be adopted as a date and time of ingestion of the meal, an ingestion timing (a date and time of ingestion) of the meal can be automatically acquired from the date and time of photography. In the present embodiment, types, ingestion amounts, and ingestion timings of articles of food and ingredients eaten by the user can be registered for not only subscription food but also general food.
The user terminal 20 and the server 10 according to the present embodiment can perform processing similar to that shown in
In the present embodiment, a similar advantageous effect to the first embodiment described above can be obtained. In addition, in the present embodiment, a user can input information on a meal (subscription food and general food) eaten by the user himself/herself on the user terminal 20 by not only inputting information on the meal eaten by the user himself/herself via the input unit 24 but also by taking a photograph using the camera 27. Furthermore, in the present embodiment, advice in accordance with ingestion information of not only subscription food but also general food eaten by the user can be provided. The modifications described above in the first embodiment can also be applied to the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment.
An information processing system which calculates a score based on various criteria using various kinds of information related to a user (user information) and which provides the user with the score will be described. Since the information processing system according to the present embodiment can be realized by a similar apparatus to that of the information processing system 100 according to the first embodiment, a description of a configuration will be omitted. The storage unit 12 of the server 10 according to the present embodiment stores a score calculation rule DB 12e in addition to the DBs 12a to 12d shown in
In the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, the user terminal 20 and the server 10 perform registration processing of user information similar to the processing shown in
In addition, the control unit 11 of the server 10 calculates a score in accordance with the read user information based on stored contents of the score calculation rule DB 12e (S61). Specifically, the control unit 11 extracts information related to an index to be used to calculate the score based on the score calculation rule DB 12e from the user information and calculates the score by performing addition in accordance with the information related to the index. For example, the control unit 11 extracts ingestion information related to dietary fiber from the user information and specifies points to be added based on the ingestion information of dietary fiber and an addition criterion and a point allocation related to dietary fiber. Accordingly, a score based on contents of a meal eaten by the user or contents of nutrients ingested through the meal is calculated. In addition, the control unit 11 extracts exercise information related to the number of steps from the user information and specifies points to be added based on the extracted number of steps and an addition criterion and a point allocation related to the number of steps. Accordingly, a score based on contents of exercise by the user is calculated. In addition, the control unit 11 extracts biological information from the user information and specifies points to be added based on whether or not an addition criterion is satisfied with respect to the extracted biological information. Accordingly, a score in accordance with a physical state (biological information) of the user is calculated. The control unit 11 calculates a score of the user by specifying points to be added and calculating total points with respect to each index stored in the score calculation rule DB 12e. In other words, the control unit 11 calculates a score based on information related to diet of the user, a score based on information related to actions in daily life such as exercise and sleep, a score based on information related to a physical state, and the like.
When subscription food according to the present embodiment is food including an inedible part of an ingredient containing a large amount of insoluble dietary fiber, dietary fiber can be ingested in an efficient manner and, at the same time, since only a small portion is discarded, a contribution can be made toward protecting earth's environment. Therefore, the control unit 11 can also calculate a score indicating a contribution made by the user by eating subscription food toward protecting earth's environment based on an ingestion state (an ingestion history) of subscription food of the user. For example, the control unit 11 extracts ingestion information related to subscription food from the user information and specifies points to be added based on the ingestion information of subscription food and an addition criterion and a point allocation in accordance with the ingestion amount. Accordingly, a score indicating a contribution toward protecting earth's environment based on ingestion amount of subscription food eaten by the user is calculated. Since it is conceivable that, the larger the amount of consumption of subscription food, the higher the degree of support of the user with respect to subscription food, a score indicating the degree of support of the user with respect to subscription food according to the present embodiment can also be calculated according to the amount of consumption of subscription food. In addition, the degree of support of the user with respect to subscription food according to the present embodiment can be indicated based on thought and creed, a vegetarianism level, preference information, a trend of thought, or the like of the user, and scores indicating such degrees of support of the user can also be calculated. For example, the control unit 11 extracts information such as thought and creed, a vegetarianism level, preference information, or a trend of thought of the user from the user information and specifies points to be added based on whether or not an addition criterion is satisfied with respect to the extracted information. Accordingly, a score indicating the degree of support of the user with respect to subscription food according to the present embodiment is calculated based on preference information of the user with respect to diet (articles of food or ingredients) or a trend of thought related to the user's attitude in daily life. The control unit 11 may calculate a comprehensive score by adding up added points based on all indexes stored in the score calculation rule DB 12e or calculate an item score for each item. In addition, the control unit 11 may calculate a lifestyle score by adding up added points based on indexes related to the items of diet, exercise, and sleep or calculate a subscription food support score by adding up added points based on indexes such as thought and creed, a vegetarianism level, preference information, a trend of thought, and an ingestion amount of subscription food of the user. The score indicating a contribution toward protecting earth's environment may be added to the lifestyle score, added to the subscription food support score, or used as an independent score.
The control unit 11 is not limited to a configuration of calculating a score when an advice is requested from the user terminal 20. For example, when the control unit 11 receives user information from the user terminal 20 and stores the user information in the member information DB 12c, the control unit 11 may update a score of the user based on the stored user information. Specifically, a determination may be made as to whether or not there are points to be added to the score in accordance with the user information stored in the member information DB 12c and, when it is determined that there are points to be added, the score of the user may be updated by adding the points to the score. In this case, the score of the user can be recalculated every time the user information stored in the member information DB 12c is updated. By storing a recalculated score in, for example, the member information DB 12c, when advice is requested by the user terminal 20, the control unit 11 may specify a score of the user by reading the score stored in the member information DB 12c.
In addition, the control unit 11 generates advice information with respect to the user information based on stored contents of the advice DB 12d (S44). In the present embodiment, the control unit 11 may generate advice information in accordance with the score calculated in step S61 in addition to user information. In this case, in addition to user information, the advice DB 12d stores, in association with a provision condition related to the score calculated based on the user information, advice contents to be provided under such a provision condition. Furthermore, the control unit 11 transmits an advice screen displaying the calculated score and the generated advice information to the user terminal 20 (S45). The control unit 21 of the user terminal 20 receives the advice screen from the server 10 and displays an advice screen such as that shown in
Due to the processing described above, based on user information acquired from the user terminal 20 and stored in the member information DB 12c, the server 10 can calculate a score indicating an evaluation with respect to a physical state, a state of diet, a state of exercise, a state of sleep, and the like of the user and provide the user with the score. In addition, the user may be provided with a score indicating a degree of support with respect to subscription food based on preference information or a trend of thought of the user.
In the present embodiment, a similar advantageous effect to the respective embodiments described above can be obtained. In addition, in the present embodiment, based on user information input via the user terminal 20, not only an advice to be provided to the user can be specified but a score for evaluating a state of the user can be calculated. Therefore, the user can be provided with a score in accordance with user information in addition to an advice in accordance with user information. Since the user can comprehend his/her own state by means of a numerical value (score), the user can readily comprehend whether or not a state related to lifestyle habits such as diet, exercise, sleep, and the like is good. The configuration according to the present embodiment can also be applied to the information processing system 100 according to the second embodiment, and a similar advantageous effect is obtained even when the configuration according to the present embodiment is applied to the information processing system 100 according to the second embodiment. Furthermore, the modifications described above in the respective embodiments can also be applied to the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment. The information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment is not limited to a configuration in which a score for evaluating a state of a user of the user terminal 20 is calculated by the server 10 and, for example, the score may be calculated by the user terminal 20. In this case, a configuration can be adopted in which the user terminal 20 stores various pieces of user information and the score calculation rule DB 12e input via the input unit 24 in the storage unit 22 and the control unit 21 (information processing unit) calculates a score in accordance with at least a part of the user information stored in the storage unit 22 based on stored contents of the score calculation rule DB 12e.
An information processing system which classifies users into a plurality of classes (user classification) based on various kinds of information related to a user (user information) will be described. Since the information processing system according to the present embodiment can be realized by a similar apparatus to that of the information processing system 100 according to the first embodiment, a description of a configuration will be omitted. Note that the member information DB 12c stored in the storage unit 12 of the server 10 according to the present embodiment slightly differs from the configuration of the member information DB 12c shown in
The classification condition DB stores a classification condition that applies when classifying users into a plurality of classes according to an attribute, preference information, a trend of thought, a physical state, a dietary state, a state of exercise, a state of sleep, or the like of the user. The classification condition DB shown in
In the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, the user terminal 20 and the server 10 perform registration processing of user information similar to the processing shown in
In addition, the user terminal 20 and the server 10 according to the present embodiment perform advice provision processing similar to the processing shown in
The server 10 according to the present embodiment performs processing of classifying each user into one of a plurality of classes based on each piece of user information acquired from the user terminal 20 and stored in the member information DB 12c.
In the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, the control unit 11 of the server 10 determines whether or not there is a user who is a classification object to be classified into a class (S71). For example, when the control unit 11 acquires, via the communication unit 13 or the input unit 14, user information of a user to be newly registered as a member and stores the acquired user information in the member information DB 12c, the control unit 11 considers the user to be a classification object and determines that there is a user who is a classification object. In addition, when the control unit 11 acquires an execution request for user classification from the user terminal 20 of a user already registered as a member, the control unit 11 may consider the user to be a classification object and determine that there is a user who is a classification object. Furthermore, the control unit 11 may regularly re-classify classes of all users and, in this case, the control unit 11 may consider all users to be a classification object and determine that there is a user who is a classification object on a regular basis or when a time of day set in advance arrives. When the control unit 11 determines that there is no user who is a classification object (S71: NO), the control unit 11 ends the processing.
When the control unit 11 determines that there is a user who is a classification object (S71: YES), the control unit 11 reads user information of one classification object from the member information DB 12c (S72) and, from the read user information, specifies a class into which the user is to be classified based on stored contents of the classification condition DB (S73). For example, the control unit 11 determines whether or not each piece of information included in the user information read from the member information DB 12c matches a classification condition of each class stored in the classification condition DB, and when there is a class that matches a classification condition, the control unit 11 specifies the class as a class of the user who is the classification object. When each piece of information in the user information matches classification conditions of a plurality of classes, the control unit 11 may specify the plurality of classes. In addition, when each piece of information in the user information does not match a classification condition of any of the classes, the control unit 11 may specify a classification condition that is nearest to each piece of information in the user information and specify a class of the specified classification condition.
When the control unit 11 specifies a class of the user who is a classification object, the control unit 11 stores a class ID of the specified class in the member information DB 12c in association with a member ID of the user who is a classification object (S74). Accordingly, information on the class into which each user is classified can be managed by the member information DB 12c. In addition, the control unit 11 transmits the class ID of the specified class to the user terminal 20 of the user who is a classification object (S75). Accordingly, information on the class into which each user is classified can also be managed by the user terminal 20, and when the user terminal 20 displays the received class ID on the display unit 25, the user can be notified of the class into which the user has been classified. The server 10 may provide the user terminal 20 with information indicating a class, a name attached to the class, or the like in place of a class ID and, in such a case, the user can readily comprehend contents of the class into which the user has been classified. The control unit 11 need not provide the user terminal 20 of the user who is a classification object with the class ID of the class into which the user has been classified and a configuration may be adopted in which information on the class into which each user is classified is only managed by the server 10 (the member information DB 12c).
After the processing of step S75, the control unit 11 returns to the processing of step S71 to determine whether or not there is another user who is a classification object (S71), and when the control unit 11 determines that there is another user who is a classification object (S71: YES), the control unit 11 performs processing of steps S72 to S75 with respect to the user who is a classification object. Accordingly, the control unit 11 also performs class classification in accordance with user information with respect to other users who are classification objects and registers the class IDs of the classified classes in the member information DB 12c.
As described above, the server 10 classifies each user into a class based on user information and a configuration is adopted which enables information on each user to be shared among users of each class.
In the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, when a user wishes to acquire information (shared information) related to another user classified into a same class as the user, the user requests the server 10 to share information related to the other user via the advice app 22AP. The user can make a request for information sharing via the home screen that is displayed when the user terminal 20 opens the advice app 22AP. For example, a home screen shown in
When the control unit 21 determines that a request instruction for information sharing has been accepted (S81: YES), the control unit 21 makes a request for information sharing to the server 10 (S82). Specifically, the control unit 21 transmits the member ID of the user and a request signal for requesting information sharing to the server 10. Alternatively, the control unit 21 may make a request for information sharing to the server 10 once the advice app 22AP is started without accepting a request instruction for information sharing from the user. In addition, after starting the advice app 22AP (in other words, when the advice app 22AP is running), the control unit 21 may make a request for information sharing to the server 10 on a regular basis or every time a time of day set in advance arrives.
When the control unit 11 of the server 10 accepts a request for information sharing from the user terminal 20, the control unit 11 specifies a class into which the user of the user terminal 20 has been classified based on stored contents of the member information DB 12c (S83). Specifically, the control unit 11 specifies the class of the user of the user terminal 20 by reading the class ID stored in the member information DB 12c in association with the member ID acquired from the user terminal 20. In addition, the control unit 11 reads user information related to another user classified into the specified class from the member information DB 12c (S84). Specifically, the control unit 11 specifies a user for which the class ID of the specified class is stored in the member information DB 12c and reads the user information of the specified user from the member information DB 12c. When there are a plurality of users in a same class, user information of all of the users is read from the member information DB 12c. In addition, based on the read user information, the control unit 11 generates shared information to be shared between users classified into the same class (S85). For example, the control unit 11 generates shared information including attribute information, profile information, a purchase history of subscription food, information on diet including subscription food and general food, and information on actions in daily life such as exercise and sleep of the other user. Each user has set whether or not to disclose each piece of information included in user information registered in the server 10 to other users (disclosure or non-disclosure), and the control unit 11 generates shared information using only information set to disclosure. Accordingly, since information that a user does not wish to disclose to other users is not disclosed, personal information can be protected.
In addition, in the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, a configuration is adopted in which any comment can be input using the user terminal 20 and registered in the server 10 (member information DB 12c) in addition to various kinds of information related to a user. Therefore, the control unit 11 may generate shared information including a comment registered in the member information DB 12c. In addition, when contents of an evaluation made by the user with respect to advice acquired from the server 10 is stored in the member information DB 12c of the server 10, the control unit 11 may include the evaluation by the user with respect to the advice in the shared information. Using such shared information enables information regarding whether or not advice provided from the server 10 had been effective to be shared among users in the class. Due to the processing described above, the control unit 11 can generate shared information for each class (each user classification).
When the control unit 11 generates shared information in the class of the user having made a request for information sharing, the control unit 11 transmits the generated shared information to the user terminal 20 (S86). When the control unit 21 of the user terminal 20 receives the shared information transmitted by the server 10, as shown in
In the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, the server 10 is not limited to a configuration in which the server 10 generates shared information to be provided to the user when information sharing is requested from the user terminal 20. For example, a configuration may be adopted in which the server 10 generates shared information in each class on a regular basis or when a time of day set in advance arrives. In this case, for example, when a predetermined period elapses or when a set time of day arrives, the control unit 11 of the server 10 generates, for each class, shared information to be shared between users of the class based on user information of users classified into the class, and stores the generated shared information in, for example, the classification condition DB in association with a class ID. In addition, when the server 10 is requested to share information from the user terminal 20, the server 10 reads shared information corresponding to the class of the user from the classification condition DB and provides the user terminal 20 with the read shared information. Even in this case, the shared information can be displayed on the home screen in a similar manner to
In the present embodiment, each user is classified into a class based on user information according to the processing described above. When subscription food according to the present embodiment has been delivered to the user in advance (in particular, when the subscription food is articles of food corresponding to a certain period of time which are collectively delivered to the user or, in other words, when the subscription food is not “articles of food purchased by the user at each time of consumption”), the subscription food is food to be consumed according to a consumption desire of the user. Therefore, ingestion information of subscription food can be phrased as consumption information (ingestion information of food) that is faithful to the consumption desire of the user. Furthermore, including non-consumption information (non-ingestion information of subscription food) in addition to ingestion information enables even more unique and accurate analysis to be performed. In the present embodiment, since each user is classified into a class based on user information (particularly, preferably including non-ingestion information) including ingestion information (ingestion history) of subscription food, highly accurate class classification more suitable for the desire of the user can be performed. In addition, since each class into which a user is classified in this manner is a class that more appropriately reflects the desire of the user, providing advice in accordance with a class enables an optimal advice to be provided to the user. Furthermore, by sharing information between users classified into each class, information can be shared with a high degree of empathy.
In the present embodiment, a similar advantageous effect to the respective embodiments described above can be obtained. In addition, in the present embodiment, each user is classified into a class based on user information input via the user terminal 20 and an advice in accordance with the class can be provided. Therefore, advice contents in accordance with user information can be differentiated for each class and, at the same time, contents of various kinds of advice by an expert such as a physician in relation with lifestyle habits, stress, bodily functions, work efficiency, cognition, and the like can be differentiated for each class. Therefore, advice that is more suitable for the user can be specified and provided. The configuration according to the present embodiment can also be applied to the information processing system 100 according to the second and third embodiments, and a similar advantageous effect is obtained even when the configuration according to the present embodiment is applied to the information processing system 100 according to the second and third embodiments. Furthermore, the modifications described above in the respective embodiments can also be applied to the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment.
An information processing system in which the server 10 performs management (inventory management) of remaining subscription food that has not been eaten by the user among subscription food purchased by the user will be described. Since the information processing system according to the present embodiment can be realized by a similar apparatus to that of the information processing system 100 according to the first embodiment, a description of a configuration will be omitted. The server 10 according to the present embodiment manages types and purchase amounts of subscription food purchased by the user according to the purchase history stored in the member information DB 12c. In addition, the server 10 manages types and ingestion amounts (eaten amounts) of subscription food eaten by the user according to the ingestion history stored in the member information DB 12c. Therefore, since the server 10 can specify types and amounts of remaining subscription food for each user based on the purchase history and the ingestion history of each user, the server 10 can perform inventory management of subscription food for each user. When the server 10 according to the present embodiment acquires information on a meal (ingestion information) of a user from the user terminal 20, the server 10 updates a remaining amount of subscription food based on subscription food consumed in the meal. The member information DB 12c according to the present embodiment has a remaining amount column (not illustrated) that stores a remaining amount of subscription food in addition to the configuration of the member information DB 12c shown in
In the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, the user terminal 20 and the server 10 perform processing similar to steps S11 to S25 in
The control unit 11 determines whether or not the specified remaining amount of subscription food is smaller than a predetermined amount (S92). For example, the control unit 11 may simply determine whether or not the remaining amount of subscription food is smaller than a predetermined amount set in advance, determine whether or not the remaining amount of subscription food is smaller than a predetermined ratio with respect to a purchased amount, or determine whether or not the remaining amount of subscription food is smaller than an amount (a predetermined amount) in accordance with the number of days until a scheduled date on which subscription food is to be next delivered to the user. The predetermined amount is desirably an amount that prevents the remaining amount of subscription food from becoming depleted before the next scheduled delivery date. In addition, the control unit 11 may determine whether or not the remaining amount of subscription food is an amount that does not become depleted before the next scheduled delivery date by also taking into consideration a pace of consumption of subscription food by the user. When the control unit 11 determines that the remaining amount of subscription food is larger than the predetermined amount (S92: NO), the control unit 11 makes a transition to the processing of step S26 and notifies the user terminal 20 of completion of registration of the information on diet (S26). Subsequently, the control unit 21 of the user terminal 20 performs processing of step S27 and thereafter.
When the control unit 11 determines that the remaining amount of subscription food is smaller than the predetermined amount (S92: YES), the control unit 11 provides the user terminal 20 with a screen for additionally purchasing subscription food. At this point, based on the purchase history and the ingestion history of the user, the control unit 11 determines whether or not a change to a product set (purchase contents) having been purchased by the user is to be proposed (S93). For example, when an amount of consumption of subscription food that is consumed by the user in a predetermined period is large with respect to an amount of products included in the product set purchased by the user (a purchased amount) and there is always a shortage of subscription food, the control unit 11 determines that a change to a product set with a larger number of products is to be proposed. Conversely, when an amount of consumption is small with respect to the product set purchased by the user and there is always a surplus of subscription food, the control unit 11 may determine that a change to a product set with a smaller number of products or a product set containing easy-to-eat products or products that can be readily used for cooking should be proposed.
When the control unit 11 determines that there is no need to propose a change to the purchase contents (S93: NO), the control unit 11 generates an additional purchase screen such as that shown in
On the other hand, when the control unit 11 determines that a change to the purchase contents should be proposed (S93: YES), the control unit 11 generates proposal information for proposing a change to the purchase contents (S95). For example, the control unit 11 specifies subscription food with a high consumption frequency by the user and generates proposal information for proposing a change to a product set containing the specified subscription food. In addition, the control unit 11 may specify subscription food that is likely to be preferred by the user based on the ingestion history of the user and may generate proposal information for proposing a change to a product set containing the specified subscription food. Accordingly, as shown in
The control unit 11 transmits the additional purchase screen generated in step S94 or step S96 to the user terminal 20 (S97), and the control unit 21 of the user terminal 20 displays the additional purchase screen received from the server 10 on the display unit 25 (S98). When the server 10 determines that there is no need to propose purchase contents, an additional purchase screen such as that shown in
In addition, when the “view purchase status of another user” button is operated on the additional purchase screen, the control unit 21 accepts a sharing instruction of information related to a purchase status of another user and requests the server 10 to share information related to the purchase status. When the server 10 accepts a sharing request for information related to a purchase status from the user terminal 20, the server 10 reads information (purchase history) related to the purchase status of another user from the member information DB 12c and generates shared information related to the purchase status. The server 10 may specify a class into which a user having made the request is classified and generate shared information related to the purchase status from information (purchase history) related to a purchase status of another user classified into the specified class. In addition, by transmitting the generated shared information to the user terminal 20, the server 10 can provide a purchase status of another user.
In the present embodiment, a similar advantageous effect to the respective embodiments described above can be obtained. In addition, in the present embodiment, a remaining amount of subscription food purchased by each user can be managed and an additional purchase can be proposed to the user when a remaining amount decreases. Furthermore, in this case, by proposing a change to purchase contents with respect to a user whose purchase contents should be changed, sales promotion of subscription food can be achieved. The configuration according to the present embodiment can also be applied to the information processing system 100 according to the second to fourth embodiments, and a similar advantageous effect is obtained even when the configuration according to the present embodiment is applied to the information processing system 100 according to the second to fourth embodiments. Furthermore, the modifications described above in the respective embodiments can also be applied to the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment.
An information processing system in which the user terminal 20 performs management (inventory management) of a remaining amount of subscription food purchased by a user will be described. Since the information processing system according to the present embodiment can be realized by a similar apparatus to that of the information processing system 100 according to the first embodiment, a description of a configuration will be omitted. The user terminal 20 according to the present embodiment stores purchase history and ingestion history of subscription food in the storage unit 22. Accordingly, the user terminal 20 can manage types and purchase amounts of subscription food purchased by the user and types and ingestion amounts of subscription food eaten by the user. Therefore, the user terminal 20 according to the present embodiment can specify types and amounts of remaining subscription food based on the purchase history and the ingestion history of the user and perform inventory management of subscription food. The user terminal 20 according to the present embodiment acquires information on diet (ingestion information) of the user via the input unit 24 and, after registering the acquired ingestion information in the server 10, updates a remaining amount of subscription food.
In the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, the user terminal 20 and the server 10 perform processing similar to steps S11 to S27 in
The control unit 21 determines whether or not the specified remaining amount of subscription food is smaller than a predetermined amount (S102). In this case, the control unit 21 determines whether or not the remaining amount of subscription food is smaller than a predetermined amount by performing processing similar to step S92 in
When the control unit 21 determines that the remaining amount of subscription food is smaller than the predetermined amount (S102: YES), the control unit 21 displays an additional purchase screen for additionally purchasing subscription food on the display unit 25 (S103). The additional purchase screen in this case has a similar configuration to the screen shown in, for example,
In the present embodiment, a similar advantageous effect to the respective embodiments described above can be obtained. In addition, in the present embodiment, a remaining amount of subscription food purchased by the user can be managed by the user terminal 20 and an additional purchase can be proposed to the user when a remaining amount decreases. By proposing an additional purchase of subscription food at a timing where the remaining amount has decreased, sales promotion of subscription food can be achieved. The configuration according to the present embodiment can also be applied to the information processing system 100 according to the second to fifth embodiments, and a similar advantageous effect is obtained even when the configuration according to the present embodiment is applied to the information processing system 100 according to the second to fifth embodiments. Furthermore, the modifications described above in the respective embodiments can also be applied to the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment.
The information processing system 100 according to each of the embodiments described above may be provided with a component that automatically measures an amount of consumption (an ingestion amount) of subscription food by the user. For example, the information processing system 100 may be provided with a stocker that stores subscription food by type, a measuring instrument that measures a total weight of subscription food stored in each stocker, and a calculating unit which calculates, when the weight measured by the measuring instrument decreases, an amount of consumption of subscription food of this type in accordance with the decreased weight. For example, in the case of subscription food in the form of vegetable sticks, since a weight of one vegetable stick is known in advance, the number of consumed vegetable sticks can be calculated from the decreased weight. In addition, in the case of subscription food in the form of vegetable paste, the decreased weight is adopted as-is as an amount of consumption of the vegetable paste. Providing such components enables, when the user takes out subscription food from a stocker, a type and an amount (an amount of consumption) of the subscription food that had been taken out to be specified. Therefore, the user need not input ingestion information of subscription food via the user terminal 20 and an operation burden can be reduced. Alternatively, a measurement result by the measuring instrument can be transmitted to the user terminal 20 and the user terminal 20 may calculate an amount of consumption of subscription food based on the measurement result. In addition, the user terminal 20 may transmit a measurement result acquired from the measuring instrument to the server 10 and the server 10 may calculate an amount of consumption of subscription food based on the acquired measurement result and a previous measurement result. A configuration may be adopted in which a remaining amount of subscription food is calculated based on a weight measured by a measuring instrument instead of calculating an amount of consumption of subscription food. Even in this case, the amount of consumption of subscription food can be specified based on a change in the remaining amount of subscription food.
An information processing system that proposes ingestion of subscription food to the user based on a target ingestion amount of the user with respect to a predetermined nutrient or a target contribution amount of the user toward earth's environment will be described. While subscription food to be proposed to the user is to be specified based on a target ingestion amount or a target contribution amount in a predetermined period such as a month in the present embodiment, the predetermined period is not limited to a month. In particular, in a case where a target value according to the present disclosure represents a target that is difficult to achieve (for example, a target related to a social problem that is difficult to solve unless public agencies take some kind of action and, as more specific examples, a target which is achievable by ingestion of food but which is difficult to achieve to such an extent that a public agency sets forth a numerical target to recommend or deter ingestion such as “a nutrient of which a deficiency affects maintaining and promoting health” or “a nutrient of which excessive ingestion affects maintaining and promoting health”), the present disclosure preferably adopts food suitable for achieving the target and a combination of the food, sets a plurality of intermediate targets, and enables a user to achieve such targets. In particular, given that eating is something that is done continuously every day, continuous consumption of any article of food is difficult due to a loss of interest unless sufficient variation is secured, there is a problem in that known articles of food (for example, supplements) with a high degree of contribution toward difficult-to-achieve targets do not offer much in terms of variation in taste and menus using such articles of food tend to be similar to each other. However, according to the present disclosure, articles of food which is highly relevant to an article of food that interests a consumer and which has a high degree of contribution toward a target can be adopted and an achievement method which is less likely to cause the consumer to lose interest and which has continuity can be provided. In particular, by outputting an achievement method including cooking methods and ingestion methods which focuses on adopting articles of food such as noodles, breads, and artificial rice which are used as staple foods, which has a high degree of contribution toward a target and which are, specifically, processed pulse products, an achievement method with continuity can be more preferably presented while securing diversity. Since the information processing system according to the present embodiment can be realized by a similar apparatus to that of the information processing system 100 according to the first embodiment, a description of a configuration will be omitted. The storage unit 12 of the server 10 according to the present embodiment stores a target amount DB 12f in addition to the DBs 12a to 12d shown in
The target contribution amount column of earth's environment stores a target contribution amount set by the user regarding a contribution toward earth's environment. The earth's environment according to the present disclosure refers to the totality of external things such as the home, society, and nature that surround human beings and animals on this Earth and is a concept of the environment in the broad sense of the term which not only includes the natural environment as exemplified by the marine environment and the atmospheric environment but also encompasses the social environment, and the term will be used in the same sense in the present embodiment. More specifically, representative examples of a target with respect to earth's environment according to the present disclosure include any one or a plurality of the 17 goals, 169 targets, and 232 indicators among the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are global goals to “achieve a better and more sustainable future for all” until 2030, described in “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” adopted by the UN General Assembly in September, 2015. More specifically, examples include items such as a reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions (in particular, a reduction of carbon dioxide emission and, further, a reduction of a carbon footprint), a reduction of the amount of industrial waste (zero emission, improvements in recycling rates and resource recovery rates), a reduction of food loss (in particular, a reduction in discarded amounts and, further, a reduction in a discarded amount of inedible parts of food), and effective utilization of water resources (in particular, a reduction of water use or a reduction of drainage), in which case these goals can be used as contribution target items with respect to earth's environment in the present embodiment, and a target value set for each target item can be adopted as a target numerical value with respect to each target item in the present embodiment. Therefore, the column of a target contribution amount of earth's environment stores a target contribution amount set by the user with respect to at least one of the items described above and the column of an already-contributed amount of earth's environment stores an amount (reduction) already contributed by the user toward each of the items described above. As the member ID stored in the target amount DB 12f, for example, when a new member is registered in the member information DB 12c, the registered member ID is stored by the control unit 11. The target amounts (the target ingestion amount and the target contribution amount) stored in the target amount DB 12f are stored by the control unit 11 when the control unit 11 acquires each target amount via the communication unit 13. As the achieved amounts (the already-ingested amount and the already-contributed amount) stored in the target amount DB 12f, when the control unit 11 acquires information related to food (subscription food and general food) ingested by the user via the communication unit 13, the control unit 11 specifies an achieved amount due to food ingested by the user and stores the specified amount. Stored contents of the target amount DB 12f are not limited to the example shown in
In the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, the user terminal 20 and the server 10 perform registration processing of user information similar to the processing shown in
On the input screen shown in
In addition, in the present embodiment, when the server 10 receives ingestion information (information on diet) from the user terminal 20, the server 10 performs processing of specifying an ingestion amount (an already-ingested amount) of each nutrient due to food ingested by the user and a contribution amount (an already-contributed amount) with respect to earth's environment and registering the specified ingestion amount and the contribution amount in the target amount DB 12f. Specifically, after processing of step S25 in
As described above, in the present embodiment, a target ingestion amount with respect to nutrients and a target contribution amount with respect to earth's environment are set in the server 10. In addition, the ingestion amount of nutrients and a contribution amount toward earth's environment which are achieved by the user by eating meals are accumulated in the server 10 every time ingestion information (information on diet) of the user is transmitted from the user terminal 20 to the server 10. In the configuration described above, when the user selects subscription food displayed on a website provided by the server 10 while viewing the website, the server 10 according to the present embodiment performs processing of proposing (advising) subscription food that is more suitable for the user based on the selected subscription food and the target amounts set by the user.
In the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, for example, while viewing a website made public by the server 10 via a network N using the user terminal 20, the user selects, using the input unit 24, an article of subscription food of interest among the articles of subscription food displayed on the website. For example, as shown in
When the control unit 11 of the server 10 receives the product ID and the member ID from the user terminal 20, the control unit 11 reads target information (the target ingestion amount of a nutrient and a target contribution amount toward earth's environment) and already-achieved amounts (the already-ingested amount of the nutrient and the already-contributed amount toward earth's environment) which are stored in the target amount DB 12f in association with the member ID (S113). The control unit 11 need only read target amounts and already-achieved amounts with respect to a nutrient and a contribution item toward earth's environment of which a target amount (a target ingestion amount or a target contribution amount) is registered. Next, the control unit 11 acquires a nutrient amount and a contribution amount toward earth's environment (achievable amounts) which can be achieved by eating the subscription food selected by the user (S114). A nutrient amount and a contribution amount toward earth's environment which can be achieved by eating each article of subscription food are stored in advance in, for example, the product information DB 12a, and the control unit 11 reads achievable amounts corresponding to the product ID from the product information DB 12a. Alternatively, achievable amounts corresponding to each article of subscription food may be stored in another server and, in this case, the control unit 11 may acquire achievable amounts corresponding to each article of subscription food from the other server.
Next, the control unit 11 specifies subscription food to be proposed to the user based on the target information and the already-achieved amounts read in step S113 and the achievable amounts acquired in step S114 (S115). For example, with respect to each article of subscription food being a sales object, the control unit 11 (achieved ingestion amount acquiring unit and achieved contribution amount acquiring unit) acquires a nutrient amount and a contribution amount toward earth's environment (achievable amounts) which can be achieved by eating the subscription food. Even in this case, the control unit 11 acquires achievable amounts corresponding to each article of subscription food from the product information DB 12a or another server. In addition, the control unit 11 calculates a remaining target ingestion amount by subtracting the already-ingested amount of the user from the target ingestion amount of the user with respect to a nutrient and specifies subscription food that should be ingested in order to achieve (realize) the remaining target ingestion amount. For example, with respect to a nutrient for which a value of a predetermined amount or more is set as the target ingestion amount, the control unit 11 extracts subscription food with a larger achievable nutrient amount than the article of subscription food selected by the user among the articles of subscription food being a sales object and specifies the extracted article of subscription food as the article of subscription food to be proposed. At this point, when the remaining target ingestion amount is larger than a nutrient amount that is achievable by the subscription food selected by the user, an article of subscription food to be proposed may be specified. In addition, with respect to a nutrient for which a value of a predetermined amount or less is set as the target ingestion amount, the control unit 11 extracts subscription food with a smaller achievable nutrient amount than the article of subscription food selected by the user among the articles of subscription food being a sales object and specifies the extracted article of subscription food as the article of subscription food to be proposed. In this case, when the remaining target ingestion amount is smaller than a nutrient amount that is achievable by the subscription food selected by the user, an article of subscription food to be proposed may be specified. In a similar manner, the control unit 11 calculates a remaining target contribution amount by subtracting the already-contributed amount of the user from the target contribution amount of the user with respect to earth's environment and specifies subscription food that should be ingested in order to achieve (realize) the remaining target contribution amount. For example, the control unit 11 extracts subscription food with a larger achievable contribution amount than the article of subscription food selected by the user among the articles of subscription food being a sales object and specifies the extracted article of subscription food as the article of subscription food to be proposed. Even in this case, when the remaining target contribution amount is larger than a contribution amount that is achievable by the subscription food selected by the user, an article of subscription food to be proposed may be specified. When target amounts are set with respect to a plurality of nutrients or a plurality of contribution items toward earth's environment, the control unit 11 specifies an article of subscription food that enables each target amount to be approached to a greater extent as the subscription food to be proposed. In addition, the control unit 11 may specify subscription food suitable for the user's preference as subscription food to be proposed by also taking preference information (dietary preferences) of the user into consideration.
In addition, when a content of “a nutrient of which a deficiency affects maintaining and promoting health” in subscription food according to the present embodiment enables a “high” claim, a “source” claim, or an “increased” claim to be made and/or a content of “a nutrient of which excessive ingestion affects maintaining and promoting health” in subscription food according to the present embodiment enables a “low” claim, a “free” claim, or a “reduced” claim to be made, an article of subscription food that enables a nutrient with high user acceptability to be ingested in an appropriate amount can be specified. For example, when a high target ingestion amount is set with respect to proteins and/or dietary fiber and a low target ingestion amount is set with respect to calories, it is preferable to specify an article of food of which a content of proteins and/or dietary fiber enables a “high” claim, a “source” claim, or an “increased” claim to be made (more specifically, the article of food: preferably contains 8 percent by mass or more of dietary fiber; preferably has a dietary fiber content ratio relative to sugars of 0.15 or more; and preferably is an article of food of which a main raw ingredient is processed pulse products (in particular, noodles, breads, and artificial rice which are used as staple foods)) and of which a content of calories enables a “low” claim, a “free” claim, or a “reduced” claim to be made.
The control unit 11 (generating unit) generates advice information such as that shown in
The control unit 11 transmits an advice screen displaying the generated advice information to the user terminal 20 (S117). The control unit 21 of the user terminal 20 receives the advice screen from the server 10 and displays an advice screen such as that shown in
In the present embodiment, a similar advantageous effect to the respective embodiments described above can be obtained. In addition, in the present embodiment, when the user selects any article of subscription food via a viewed image, the user can receive advice for achieving target information of the user. In doing so, an achievable amount with respect to a target of the user can be provided for the article of subscription food selected by the user and the proposed article of subscription food. Therefore, the user can take a degree of achievability with respect to the user's own target into consideration when evaluating purchase and ingestion of subscription food. Furthermore, a degree of achievement in an achievement plan during an arbitrary period set by the user can be checked and advice can be received and considered for the purpose of realizing the achievement plan. The configuration according to the present embodiment can also be applied to the information processing system 100 according to the second to sixth embodiments, and a similar advantageous effect is obtained even when the configuration according to the present embodiment is applied to the information processing system 100 according to the second to sixth embodiments. When the configuration according to the present embodiment is applied to the fourth embodiment described above, class classification according to a target ingestion amount with respect to a nutrient or a target contribution amount with respect to earth's environment by each user can be performed. Furthermore, the modifications described above in the respective embodiments can also be applied to the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment.
The present embodiment is not limited to a configuration in which the user himself/herself sets target information. For example, a target ingestion amount with respect to each nutrient and a target contribution amount with respect to a contribution item toward earth's environment can be registered in advance in the storage unit 12 or another server in accordance with information such as an age, sex, a birthplace (country or region), religion, a vegetarianism level, and a trend of preference related to diet (preference information). In this case, the control unit 11 of the server 10 may acquire a target amount in accordance with the information of the user described above from the storage unit 12 or another server and set the target amount as target information of the user. In addition, the control unit 11 may acquire target information (in particular, target information which is achievable by ingestion of food but which is difficult to achieve to such an extent that a public agency sets forth a numerical target to recommend or deter ingestion) in accordance with the user from a web server publishing such information and may set the target information. For example, as a target ingestion amount with respect to dietary fibers, ingestion amounts (medians) described in “Table 2: Values Referred to for Calculating DRIs for Dietary Fiber (g/day)” in “1-4 Carbohydrates, 4 Dietary Fiber” in “II Details, 1 Energy/Nutrients” in “Dietary Reference Intakes for Japanese (2020)” can be used. In addition, a target amount in accordance with a birthplace or a place of residence of the user may be acquired from an ingestion criterion of each nutrient disclosed in each country and used as target information. When such a configuration is adopted, a target amount in accordance with a state of the user can be automatically set. In addition, a target amount in accordance with a dietary habit or lifestyle habits of the user such as when the user is on a diet can be automatically set. Specifically, an ingestion criterion in accordance with a birthplace or a place of residence associated with a user ID can be selected by a system and an ingestion amount described in the ingestion criterion can be used. For example, as a target ingestion amount with respect to dietary fiber in the US, an ingestion amount described in “Dietary Fiber, g” that corresponds to an age and sex of the user from a list titled “Table A7-1. Daily Nutritional Goals for Age-Sex Groups Based on Dietary Reference Intakes & Dietary Guidelines Recommendations” in “Appendix 7. Nutritional Goals for Age-Sex Groups Based on Dietary Reference Intakes & Dietary Guidelines Recommendations” in “2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans” can be used. Alternatively, when the birthplace or the place of residence of the user is the UK, as a target ingestion amount with respect to dietary fiber, an ingestion amount described in “Age group” in accordance with an age of the user in a list titled “Dietary Fiber” in “Nutrition Requirements_Revised August 2019” can be selected and used. The ingestion criterion of each nutrient made public in each country is not limited to the above and the ingestion criterion can be acquired from data stored in the storage unit or information such as a website of administrative agencies or research institutions of each country being disclosed via the network N. Besides setting an ingestion criterion of the public agencies described earlier as a target ingestion amount, the ingestion criterion can be set as a recommended amount to be compared with a target ingestion amount of each user and the user can manually change a target value through a comparison with the recommended amount or the system can be configured to execute an advice with respect to a target value setting on the user based on a difference from the recommended amount.
In addition, the server 10 may provide the user terminal 20 with target information acquired from another server or the like based on information on the user as described above and the user terminal 20 may display target information (each target amount) provided from the server 10 when displaying the input screen of target information shown in
The seventh embodiment described above represents a configuration which, when a user selects an article of subscription food via a website being viewed by the user, proposes another article of subscription food. In the present embodiment, an information processing system will be described which, when a user selects an article of general food via a website, proposes an article of subscription food. Since the information processing system according to the present embodiment can be realized by a similar apparatus to that of the information processing system 100 according to the seventh embodiment, a description of a configuration will be omitted. In the present embodiment, an ingestion history that is transmitted from the user terminal 20 to the server 10 in order to be stored in the member information DB 12c includes not only information on subscription food eaten by the user but also includes information on general food eaten by the user.
In the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, the user terminal 20 and the server 10 perform registration processing of user information similar to the processing shown in
Therefore, even in the present embodiment, a target ingestion amount with respect to nutrients and a target contribution amount with respect to earth's environment are set in the server 10 for each user and an ingestion amount of nutrients and a contribution amount toward earth's environment achieved by the user by eating meals are accumulated in the server 10. For example, when the user selects an article of food (general food) being displayed on any website while viewing the website or when information that enables an article of food to be directly or indirectly specified is displayed on a website and an article of food (general food) is selected by the system based on the displayed food information, the server 10 according to the present embodiment performs processing of advising subscription food suitable for the user based on general food selected by the user or general food selected by the system (both may be collectively referred to as “food selected by the user”) and on a target amount set by the user.
When the control unit 21 has determined that any of the articles of general food has been selected (S121: YES), the control unit 21 transmits information on the selected article of food and a member ID of the user to the server 10 (S122). In this case, the control unit 21 specifies a type (menu), a dish name, or the like of the selected article of food and transmits the specified food information (specific information) to the server 10. As food information, for example, information that can be acquired from described contents on a website is used. Food information need only be information that enables an article of food to be directly or indirectly specified, and examples of food information include: literation of food (for example, a combination of characters “pa”, “su”, and “ta” (from which “pasta” is specified)); a photograph of food (for example, a photograph of pasta (from which “pasta” is specified)); vocalization of food (for example, a combination of sounds “pa”, “su”, and “ta” (from which “pasta” is specified)); an ingredient of food (for example, a flavor component characteristic of pasta (from which “pasta” is specified) or an amino acid composition characteristic of pasta (from which “pasta” is specified)); information that is generally highly relevant to food (for example, an image of a cow (from which “beef” and “milk”, being articles of highly-relevant food, are specified) or a cat-type robot supposedly from the 22nd century (from which “Dorayaki”, being an article of highly-relevant food, is specified); and information corresponding to an article of food in association information with the article of food set in advance (for example, a photograph of a gym (and association information created by the user or an AI (Artificial Intelligence), from which “low-sugar/high-protein food” is specified which is an article of corresponding food having been associated in advance). In addition, the food specified by specific information may be a specific article of food (for example, pasta), a group that is a superordinate concept to which the food belongs (for example, noodles), or food defined by characteristics related to target information of the food (for example, “low-sugar/high-protein food” or “food with reduced food loss”. When the control unit 11 of the server 10 receives the food information and the member ID from the user terminal 20, the control unit 11 reads target information (the target ingestion amount of a nutrient and the target contribution amount toward earth's environment) and already-achieved amounts (the already-ingested amount of the nutrient and the already-contributed amount toward earth's environment) corresponding to the user from the target amount DB 12f (S113).
In the present embodiment, the control unit 11 acquires a nutrient amount and a contribution amount toward earth's environment (achievable amounts) which can be achieved by eating the article of general food selected by the user (S123). In this case, the control unit 11 specifies ingredients included in the general food and acquires an achievable amount by each ingredient. For example, when carbonara (an article of general food) is selected, the control unit 11 specifies ingredients such as spaghetti and bacon as ingredients included in carbonara and acquires an achievable amount by each ingredient. The achievable amount by each ingredient is stored in advance in, for example, the storage unit 12 or another server, and the control unit 11 acquires an achievable amount corresponding to each ingredient from the storage unit 12 or the other server. In addition, when there is a web server that discloses, for each menu (type of article of food), an achievable amount by each ingredient included in the menu, the control unit 11 may acquire the achievable amount from the web server. When the general food selected by the user is an ingredient such as spaghetti or bacon, the control unit 11 may acquire an achievable amount according to the selected ingredient.
Subsequently, the control unit 11 of the server 10 and the control unit 21 of the user terminal 20 execute processing of steps S115 to S118. Accordingly, based on the target information and an already-achieved amount of the user and an achievable amount by the article of general food selected by the user, the server 10 specifies an article of subscription food to be proposed to the user and provides the user terminal 20 with an advice screen for proposing the specified article of subscription food. In the present embodiment, in step S115, the control unit 11 specifies an article of subscription food that can be used as a substitute food of the article of general food selected by the user as the article of subscription food to be proposed to the user. Even in doing so, the control unit 11 specifies subscription food that should be ingested in order to achieve a remaining target ingestion amount that is calculated by subtracting the already-ingested amount of the user from the target ingestion amount of the user with respect to a nutrient. In addition, the control unit 11 specifies subscription food that should be ingested in order to achieve a remaining target contribution amount that is calculated by subtracting the already-contributed amount of the user from the target contribution amount of the user with respect to earth's environment. When target amounts are set with respect to a plurality of nutrients or a plurality of contribution items toward earth's environment, the control unit 11 specifies an article of subscription food that enables each target amount to be approached to a greater extent as the subscription food to be proposed. For example, when a low value is set as the target ingestion amount of sugars or lipids and a high value is set as the target ingestion amount of proteins, the control unit 11 specifies an article of subscription food of which an ingestion amount of sugars or lipids is low and an ingestion amount of proteins is high. Alternatively, during a period of achieving a target amount set by the user, an optimal amount of consumption of subscription food for achieving the target amount during the achievement period and a recipe for the consumption can be selected based on a degree of achievement calculated from an ingestion amount up to the point of input and the target ingestion amount. In addition, when a high value is set as a target reduction amount of food loss and a high value is set as the target ingestion amount of dietary fibers, the control unit 11 specifies an article of subscription food of which a reduction amount of food loss is high and an ingestion amount of dietary fibers is high. Furthermore, the control unit 11 may specify subscription food suitable for the user's preference by also taking preference information (dietary preferences) of the user into consideration.
In the present embodiment, a similar advantageous effect to the respective embodiments described above can be obtained. In addition, in the present embodiment, when the user selects any article of food while viewing a website using the user terminal 20, the user can receive advice related to an article of subscription food for achieving target information of the user. In doing so, since an achievable amount with respect to a target of the user can be provided for the food selected by the user and the proposed subscription food, the user can evaluate purchasing and ingesting the subscription food by taking an achievable degree of the target set by the user himself/herself into consideration. The configuration according to the present embodiment can also be applied to the information processing system 100 according to the second to sixth embodiments, and a similar advantageous effect is obtained even when the configuration according to the present embodiment is applied to the information processing system 100 according to the second to sixth embodiments. Furthermore, the modifications described above in the respective embodiments can also be applied to the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment.
The present embodiment is not limited to a configuration in which the target ingestion amount with respect to a nutrient and the target contribution amount with respect to earth's environment of the user are registered in the server 10 (the target amount DB 12f) in advance. For example, a configuration may be adopted in which, when the user selects articles of food (subscription food and general food) via a website being viewed by the user, an input screen of a target ingestion amount with respect to a nutrient and a target contribution amount with respect to earth's environment is displayed on the user terminal 20 and target amounts are acquired at this point. Even in this case, based on the target amount of the user and an achievable amount due to a selected article of food, advice related to an article of subscription food capable of better achieving the target amount can be provided. In such a configuration, even a user who is not registered as a member can receive a proposal of subscription food based on an input target amount.
An information processing system that proposes purchasing subscription food to the user based on a desired purchase amount with respect to an article of subscription food or a desired ingestion amount with respect to any nutrient will be described. Since the information processing system according to the present embodiment can be realized by a similar apparatus to that of the information processing system 100 according to the first embodiment, a description of a configuration will be omitted. In the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, the user terminal 20 and the server 10 perform registration processing of user information similar to the processing shown in
When the user designates a desired purchase amount with respect to subscription food or a desired ingestion amount with respect to any nutrient, the server 10 according to the present embodiment performs processing of advising subscription food for achieving desired contents.
In the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, the user causes the user terminal 20 to execute the advice app 22AP and display an input screen of purchase desire information. The control unit 21 of the user terminal 20 starts the advice app 22AP in accordance with an operation by the user and displays an input screen of purchase desire information such as that shown in
When an article of subscription food that the user wishes to purchase is determined, a product name and an order quantity of the subscription food are input to respective input fields on the input screen of purchase desire information. In addition, when an article of subscription food that the user wishes to purchase is not yet determined but a nutrient that the user wishes to ingest and an ingestion amount thereof are determined, an item and a desired amount of the nutrient are input to respective input fields on the input screen of purchase desire information. On the input screen of purchase desire information, after inputting the desired purchase amount of an article of subscription food or the desired ingestion amount of a nutrient, the user operates an advice display button. Alternatively, an item and a desired amount of the nutrient that the user desires to limit are input to respective input fields. On the input screen of purchase desire information, after operating the advice display button and referring to the desired amount and an advice in accordance with user information associated with the member ID, the user can input the desired purchase amount of the subscription food or the desired ingestion amount of the nutrient.
The control unit 21 of the user terminal 20 has determined whether or not a desired purchase amount of a subscription food or a desired ingestion amount of a nutrient (in other words, purchase desire information) has been accepted via the input screen of purchase desire information (S131), and when the control unit 21 determines that purchase desire information has not been accepted (S131: NO), the control unit 21 stands by while performing other processing. When the control unit 21 determines that purchase desire information has been accepted (S131: YES), the control unit 21 transmits the input purchase desire information to the server 10 after the advice display button is operated (S132).
When the control unit 11 of the server 10 receives purchase desire information from the user terminal 20, the control unit 11 acquires an achievable amount due to the subscription food that is a sales object (S133). When the purchase desire information is a product name and an order quantity of subscription food, the control unit 11 acquires an achievable amount due to the subscription food included in the purchase desire information, and when the purchase desire information is an item and a desired amount of a nutrient, the control unit 11 acquires an achievable amount due to all articles of subscription food. An achievable amount due to subscription food can be acquired from, for example, the product information DB 12a or another server. In addition, the control unit 11 specifies an article of subscription food to be proposed to the user based on the purchase desire information received from the user terminal 20 (S134). For example, when the purchase desire information is a product name and an order quantity of subscription food, the control unit 11 specifies subscription food that is similar to the subscription food included in the purchase desire information, subscription food with a larger achievable amount, and the like. In addition, when the purchase desire information is an item and a desired amount of a nutrient, the control unit 11 specifies an article of subscription food for achieving the desired amount of the nutrient.
In addition, the control unit 11 generates advice information for proposing the specified article of subscription food (S116). For example, when the purchase desire information is a product name and an order quantity of subscription food, the control unit 11 generates advice information that proposes purchase and ingestion of subscription food specified in step S134 in addition to the subscription food included in the purchase desire information. In addition, when the purchase desire information is an item and a desired amount of a nutrient, the control unit 11 generates advice information for achieving the desired amount of the nutrient due to the subscription food specified in step S134.
The control unit 11 transmits the advice screen displaying the generated advice information to the user terminal 20 (S117), and the control unit 21 of the user terminal 20 displays the advice screen received from the server 10 on the display unit 25 (S118). When the user inputs purchase desire information using the user terminal 20 according to the processing described above, the server 10 can provide an advice on subscription food in line with the purchase desire information. Accordingly, the user can be provided with advice on subscription food to be purchased in order to achieve the purchase desire information input by the user himself/herself. Alternatively, menus that use each of the articles of subscription food may be displayed on the advice screen.
In the present embodiment, a similar advantageous effect to the respective embodiments described above can be obtained. In addition, in the present embodiment, by inputting purchase desire information using the user terminal 20, the user can receive advice related to an article of subscription food for achieving the purchase desire information. Therefore, when the user is undecided as to which subscription food he/she wants to purchase, by designating a nutrient that he/she wants to ingest, the user can be recommended of an article of subscription food which is capable of achieving an desired ingestion amount of the nutrient that the user wishes to ingest. Alternatively, by inputting purchase desire information by inputting an item and a desired amount of a nutrient that the user wishes to limit, the user can receive advice related to purchase information of an article of subscription food that is recommended for achieving the nutrient limitation desire information. Therefore, by taking a recommended product into consideration when evaluating the purchase and ingestion of subscription food, the user can use subscription food according to a subscription purchase method that enables the user to achieve a desired target. The configuration according to the present embodiment can also be applied to the information processing system 100 according to the second to eighth embodiments, and a similar advantageous effect is obtained even when the configuration according to the present embodiment is applied to the information processing system 100 according to the second to eighth embodiments. Furthermore, the modifications described above in the respective embodiments can also be applied to the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment.
In the present embodiment, a configuration may be adopted in which recommends, based on a desired contribution amount toward earth's environment, an article of subscription food for achieving the desired contribution amount in addition to achieving a desired purchase amount with respect to subscription food or a desired ingestion amount with respect to any nutrient. In addition, in a case of a user already registered as a member, an article of subscription food to be recommended to the user may be specified based on various kinds of information included in user information registered in the member information DB 12c in addition to purchase desire information input via an input screen for purchase desire information. For example, an article of subscription food to be recommended to the user may be specified based on any or a plurality of pieces of information among purchase desire information, a purchase history, an ingestion history, exercise information, sleep information, biological information, preference information, psychosomatic information (stress, work efficiency, and bodily functions), and the like.
While the seventh and eighth embodiments described above represent a configuration in which an article of subscription food suitable for a user is proposed when the user selects an article of food (subscription food or general food) via a website being viewed by the user, in the present embodiment, an information processing system will be described which proposes an article of food (including food other than subscription food) suitable for the user in accordance with contents of the website being viewed by the user. The food to be proposed to the user in the present embodiment is general food. Specifically, the food proposed to the user in the present embodiment may be food being sold in a subscription system (subscription food that is a sales object) or food being sold in a system other than subscription (for example, food being sold on a website or at a store). It its needless to say that users to be an object of providing the information processing system according to the present embodiment may be general users who have not purchased food by a subscription system or users who have already purchased food by a subscription system. Furthermore, users to be an object of providing the information processing system according to the present embodiment may be users who purchase food by a subscription service provided by a person who is the same or who is legally or economically equivalent to a person providing the information processing system according to the present embodiment or users who purchase food by a subscription service provided by another person. Since the information processing system according to the present embodiment can be realized by a similar apparatus to that of the information processing system 100 according to the seventh embodiment, a description of a configuration will be omitted. In addition, in the present embodiment, an ingestion history that is transmitted from the user terminal 20 to the server 10 in order to be stored in the member information DB 12c may include not only information on subscription food eaten by the user but may also include information on general food eaten by the user.
In the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, the user terminal 20 and the server 10 perform registration processing of user information similar to the processing shown in
Therefore, even in the present embodiment, a target ingestion amount with respect to nutrients and a target contribution amount with respect to earth's environment are set in the server 10 for each user and an ingestion amount of nutrients and a contribution amount toward earth's environment achieved by the user by eating meals are accumulated in the server 10. For example, when a user is viewing any website, the server 10 according to the present embodiment performs processing of advising food that is suitable for the user in accordance with contents displayed on the website.
The control unit 21 of the user terminal 20 has determined whether or not the user is currently viewing the website (S141), and when the control unit 21 has determined that the user is not viewing the website (S141: NO), the control unit 21 stands by while performing other processing. When the control unit 21 determines that the user is viewing the website (S141: YES), the control unit 21 acquires displayed contents (viewed contents) of the website (S142) and transmits the acquired viewed contents and the member ID of the user to the server 10 (S143). For example, the control unit 21 may acquire contents of a title described on the website as viewed contents (specific information) or the control unit 21 may specify a word with a large number of occurrences on the website and acquire the specified word as viewed contents (specific information). The control unit 11 of the server 10 receives the viewed contents and the member ID from the user terminal 20. Accordingly, the control unit 11 (specific information acquiring unit) can acquire specific information that specifies display contents of the website being viewed by the user. Subsequently, the control unit 11 reads target information (the target ingestion amount of a nutrient and a target contribution amount toward earth's environment) and already-achieved amounts (the already-ingested amount of the nutrient and the already-contributed amount toward earth's environment) corresponding to the user from the target amount DB 12f (S113).
In the present embodiment, for example, the control unit 11 reads a purchase history and an ingestion history of the user from the member information DB 12c (S144) and, based on the viewed contents, target information and already-achieved amounts of the user, and the purchase history and the ingestion history of the user, specifies an article of food to be proposed to the user (S145). For example, an article of food to be proposed to the user may be registered in the storage unit 12 in advance in accordance with viewed contents of the user, and the control unit 11 specifies an article of food to be proposed to the user based on the viewed contents received from the user terminal 20. For example, in association with viewed contents related to earth's environment such as food loss, food with a large contribution toward earth's environment (for example, a large reduction amount in food loss) is registered in advance. In this case, the control unit 11 specifies an article of food with a large contribution toward earth's environment as the article of food to be provided to the user viewing the website shown in
Subsequently, the control unit 11 of the server 10 and the control unit 21 of the user terminal 20 execute processing of steps S116 to S118. Accordingly, the server 10 can provide the user terminal 20 with an advice screen for proposing the article of food specified in step S145.
In the present embodiment, a similar advantageous effect to the respective embodiments described above can be obtained. In addition, in the present embodiment, when the user is viewing a website using the user terminal 20, the user can receive advice related to an article of food in accordance with viewed contents and which enables target information of the user to be achieved. Therefore, advice related to an article of food in accordance with viewed contents or, in other words, an article of food that is of interest to the user can be provided. In addition, in doing so, since an achieved contribution amount with respect to a target of the user can be provided for each article of food to be proposed, the user can evaluate purchasing and ingesting each article of food by taking an achievable degree of the target set by the user himself/herself into consideration. As described above, in the present embodiment, an article of food in accordance with viewed contents and which achieves target information set by the user can be proposed with viewing of a website as a trigger. The configuration according to the present embodiment can also be applied to the information processing system 100 according to the second to sixth and eighth to ninth embodiments, and a similar advantageous effect is obtained even when the configuration according to the present embodiment is applied to the information processing system 100 according to the second to sixth and eighth to ninth embodiments. In addition, in the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, a part of a configuration of modifications described from time to time in each of the embodiments described above or to be described later can be applied to the present embodiment by performing appropriate adjustments including changing object food from subscription food to general food (including food other than subscription food) as necessary and also changing users as objects to which the information processing system is to be provided to general users (including users who do not purchase food by a subscription system).
The present embodiment is not limited to a configuration in which processing of specifying food to be proposed to the user in accordance with contents of a website being viewed by the user is performed by the server 10. For example, by registering food to be proposed to the user in the user terminal 20 in advance in accordance with food information that can be directly or indirectly specified from contents of a website, the user terminal 20 can specify food in accordance with viewed contents while the user is viewing the website. Even in this case, the user terminal 20 may further select an article of food for achieving target information from food in accordance with the viewed contents and may further select an article of food in accordance with a purchase history and an ingestion history of the user.
The present embodiment is also not limited to a configuration in which the target ingestion amount with respect to a nutrient and the target contribution amount with respect to earth's environment of the user are registered in the server 10 (the target amount DB 12f) in advance. For example, a configuration may be adopted in which an input screen of a target ingestion amount with respect to a nutrient and a target contribution amount with respect to earth's environment is displayed on the user terminal 20 at any timing while the user is viewing a website and target amounts are acquired at this point. Even in this case, based on the target amounts of the user and an achieved contribution amount due to the article of food to be proposed to the user, advice on an article of food capable of achieving the target amount to a greater extent can be provided. Alternatively, a target ingestion amount with respect to a nutrient and a target contribution amount with respect to earth's environment may be specified and used from attribute information or the like of the user. In the case of such a configuration, even a user who is not registered as a member can receive a proposal of an article of food in accordance with contents of a website being viewed by the user.
The eighth embodiment described above represents a configuration which, when a user selects an article of general food via a website being viewed by the user, proposes an article of subscription food suitable for the user. In the present embodiment, an information processing system will be described which proposes a substitutable ingredient (article of food) with respect to each ingredient contained in an article of general food selected by the user in the eighth embodiment described above. Since the information processing system according to the present embodiment can be realized by a similar apparatus to that of the information processing system 100 according to the eighth embodiment, a description of a configuration will be omitted.
In the present embodiment, the control unit 11 specifies an ingredient included in the article of general food selected by the user (S151). For example, when a user selects an article of food or when information that enables an article of food to be directly or indirectly specified is displayed on a website and an article of food is selected by the system based on the displayed food information and when information on an ingredient used in the article of food selected by the user or the system (both may be collectively simply referred to as “an article of food selected by the user”) has been transmitted from the user terminal 20, the control unit 11 specifies the ingredient included in the article of food selected by the user from the received information. In addition, when a menu of the article of food selected by the user has been transmitted from the user terminal 20, the control unit 11 may acquire an ingredient generally used in the received menu from, for example, a server that publishes menus of various articles of food. Next, the control unit 11 specifies an ingredient that can be replaced with a substitute ingredient (substitute article of food) among ingredients included in the article of food selected by the user (S152). For example, by registering vegetable noodles in association with spaghetti (pasta) in the storage unit 12 as a substitute food of spaghetti (pasta), the control unit 11 can specify spaghetti as an ingredient that can be replaced with vegetable noodles (substitute food). In addition, by registering a pasta sauce (cream sauce) in association with milk or heavy cream in the storage unit 12 as a substitute food of milk or heavy cream, the control unit 11 can specify milk or heavy cream as an ingredient that can be replaced with pasta sauce (substitute food). Therefore, for example, when carbonara (an article of general food) is selected by the user, ingredients such as spaghetti, bacon, and milk are specified as ingredients contained in carbonara and spaghetti and milk are specified as ingredients that can be replaced with articles of substitute food.
In addition, with respect to each of the ingredients that can be replaced with articles of substitute food and the articles of substitute food, the control unit 11 acquires a nutrient amount and a contribution amount toward earth's environment (achievable amounts) which can be achieved by the ingredient (S153). The achievable amount (achieved contribution amount) by each ingredient is stored in advance in, for example, the storage unit 12 or another server, and the control unit 11 acquires an achievable amount corresponding to each ingredient from the storage unit 12 or the other server.
Based on the target information and the already-achieved amount read in step S113 and the achievable amount of each ingredient acquired in step S153, the control unit 11 specifies (selects) an article of food (substitute food) to be proposed to the user with respect to ingredients that can be replaced with articles of substitute food (S154). At this point, with respect to each of the ingredients that can be replaced with articles of substitute food, when an achievable amount due to an article of substitute food is larger than an achievable amount due to each ingredient, the control unit 11 specifies the article of substitute food as the article of food to be provided to the user. The control unit 11 specifies an article of subscription food that should be ingested in order to achieve remaining target information that is calculated by subtracting the already-achieved amount of the user from the target information of the user as an article of food to be provided to the user. The article of substitute food at this point may be subscription food that is a sales object or food being sold via a website or a store.
Subsequently, the control unit 11 of the server 10 and the control unit 21 of the user terminal 20 execute processing of steps S116 to S118. Accordingly, with respect to an ingredient that can be replaced with an article of substitute food among ingredients contained in food selected by the user, the server 10 can provide the user terminal 20 with an advice screen that proposes food (substitute food) for achieving target information of the user.
In the present embodiment, a similar advantageous effect to the respective embodiments described above can be obtained. In addition, in the present embodiment, when the user selects any article of food while viewing a website, the user can receive advice related to an article of substitute food for achieving target information of the user with respect to an ingredient that can be replaced with an article of substitute food among ingredients contained in the selected article of food. The configuration according to the present embodiment can also be applied to the information processing system 100 according to the second to seventh and ninth to tenth embodiments, and a similar advantageous effect is obtained even when the configuration according to the present embodiment is applied to the information processing system 100 according to the second to seventh and ninth to tenth embodiments. In addition, in the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment, a part of a configuration of modifications described from time to time in each of the embodiments described above can be applied to the present embodiment by performing appropriate adjustments including changing object food from subscription food to general food (including food other than subscription food) as necessary and changing users as objects to which the information processing system is to be provided to general users who have not purchased food by a subscription system.
In the information processing system 100 according to each embodiment described above, when generating advice information to be provided to a user, the control unit 11 of the server 10 may also take into consideration an article of subscription food not being currently purchased or ingested by the user among articles of subscription food in addition to the user information stored in the member information DB 12c. Accordingly, for example, advice information can be generated which recommends purchasing subscription food that the user has never purchased nor ingested or subscription food that the user had purchased or ingested in the past but is not currently doing so. Information on subscription food not purchased nor ingested by the user may be input by the user via the user terminal 20 to be registered in the server 10. In addition, the server 10 may specify subscription food other than subscription food having been purchased by the user among subscription food that is a sales object and consider the specified subscription food to be subscription food not being currently purchased or ingested by the user.
In the information processing system 100 according to each embodiment described above, the control unit 21 of the user terminal 20 can display a screen for inputting user information, prompt the user to input user information, and accept each piece of user information. The control unit 11 of the server 10 can determine that a user is a general user based on information indicating that the user has not input user information or, even if the user has input a part of information of user information, identification information of the user is not stored in the member information DB 12c. The control unit 21 of the user terminal 20 of the user having input information indicating that the user is a general user can present the user with a display for executing or not executing member registration. When the user executes member registration, a screen for inputting various kinds of user information is subsequently displayed and user information is accepted, and the server 10 registers user information input via the user terminal 20 in the member information DB 12c. After registration, as various kinds of advantageous effects in procedures up to advice presentation, advantageous effects equivalent to those described earlier are to be obtained. Even if the user defers member registration by selecting, for example, a display such as “later”, the control unit 21 of the user terminal 20 can generate, from input information, user member information in accordance with an attribute, preference information, a trend of thought, a physical state, a dietary state, a state of exercise, a state of sleep, or the like of the user input by the control unit 11 of the server 10, and from information stored in the member information DB 12c and similar user information, an optimal advice (using similar ranking information, user thought prediction learning information by an AI, or the like). Alternatively, a classification based on the user information can be performed and an optimal advice can be generated from classification information relevant to the user among the classification condition DB.
In the information processing system 100 according to each embodiment described above, a provision destination to which the server 10 provides an advice is not limited to the user terminal 20 and may be, for example, a terminal (user terminal 20) of a guardian, a family member, a friend, a helper, or the like of the user. In this case, by registering a terminal of a provision destination of advice in the server 10 in advance, when the server 10 generates advice information with respect to the user, the advice information can be provided to the guardian of the user or the like. Therefore, also providing advice information to those other than the user himself/herself enables various kinds of information of the user related to diet, exercise, sleep, and the like to be shared between the user and the guardian or the like, and it is expected that such sharing of information may lead to improvements in lifestyle habits, stress, bodily functions, work efficiency, and cognition of the user.
In the information processing system 100 according to each embodiment described above, processing that is realized by the user terminal 20 by executing the advice app 22AP may be configured to be divided among a plurality of application programs. For example, a configuration may be adopted in which processing of the user terminal 20 acquiring information (user information) related to a user via the input unit 24 or the like and accumulating the information in the server 10 and processing of acquiring, from the server 10, advice in accordance with the user information accumulated in the server 10 are realized by different application programs. In this case, by executing a program for accumulating user information, the control unit 21 of the user terminal 20 performs processing of accepting user information such as attribute information, profile information, biological information, exercise information, sleep information, and a type, an ingestion amount, and an ingestion timing of food eaten by the user (user ingestion information) via the input unit 24 or the like and transmitting the information to the server 10. In addition, by executing a program for acquiring advice, the control unit 21 performs processing of transmitting a member ID (identification information) of the user to the server 10 to request for an advice, acquiring advice in accordance with the user information of the user from the server 10, and displaying the advice on the display unit 25. Even when such a configuration is adopted, similar processing to each embodiment described above can be performed and a similar advantageous effect can be obtained. The user information accumulated in the server 10 may be input via an application program stored in the user terminal 20 or may be input via a predetermined website being made public via the network N. In addition, when the user information is stored in another storage apparatus, the server 10 may be configured to acquire the user information from the other storage apparatus.
In the information processing system 100 according to each embodiment described above, processing performed by the server 10 may be distributed among a plurality of servers. For example, processing by the server 10 of accumulating user information acquired from each user terminal 20 and processing by the server 10 of providing each user terminal 20 with an advice in accordance with the accumulated user information may be performed by different servers. In this case, an accumulation server that accumulates user information performs processing of acquiring various kinds of information (user information) related to the user input using the user terminal 20 and accumulating the information in the member information DB 12c such as that shown in
The embodiments disclosed herein are to be considered as an example in all aspects and not restrictive. The scope of the present disclosure is indicated by the scope of claims, but not the meaning described above, and is intended to include all modifications within the meaning and scope equivalent to the scope of claims.
100 Information processing system
10 Server
11 Control unit
12 Storage unit
13 Communication unit
20 User terminal
21 Control unit
22 Storage unit
23 Communication unit
25 Display unit
27 Camera
12
a Product information DB
12
c Member information DB
12
d Advice DB
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2020-016395 | Feb 2020 | JP | national |
PCT/JP2020/030341 | Aug 2020 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/JP2021/003615 | 2/2/2021 | WO |