RECOGNITION DEVICE, RECOGNITION METHOD, AND COMPUTER-READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM RECORDED WITH RECOGNITION PROGRAM

• US 20080240519A1
• Filed: 03/28/2008
• Published: 10/02/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: NAGAMITSU, Sachio
• Application Number:
  US12/058,164
• Publication Number:
  US 20080240519A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/118
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/012 Head tracking input arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883

Abstract

An object of the invention is to provide a user in performing a work with a proper advice and support the user'"'"'s work. An advice database stores advice data for supporting a user in performing a work. An advice selector selects advice data in accordance with the user'"'"'s work from the advice database. An advice presenter presents the user with the advice data selected by the advice selector. A user status recognizer recognizes a reaction of the user to the advice data presented by the advice presenter. A user dependence estimator estimates a dependence degree of the user indicating how much the user relies on the presented advice data, based on the user'"'"'s reaction recognized by the user status recognizer. The advice selector selects advice data in accordance with the user'"'"'s dependence degree estimated by the user dependence estimator from the advice database.

Claims

1. A recognition device, comprising:

an advice data storage for storing advice data for supporting a user in performing a work;

an advice selector for selecting advice data for the work from the advice data storage;

an advice presenter for presenting the user with the advice data selected by the advice selector;

a user status recognizer for recognizing a reaction of the user to the advice data presented by the advice presenter; and

a user dependence estimator for estimating a dependence degree of the user indicating how much the user relies on the advice data presented by the advice presenter, based on the user'"'"'s reaction recognized by the user status recognizer, wherein

the advice selector selects, from the advice data storage, the advice data in accordance with the user'"'"'s dependence degree estimated by the user dependence estimator.

2. The recognition device according to claim 1, wherein

the user status recognizer recognizes a change of the body of the user with time to the advice data presented by the advice presenter, and

the user dependence estimator estimates the user'"'"'s dependence degree, based on the change of the user'"'"'s body with time recognized by the user status recognizer.

3. The recognition device according to claim 2, wherein

the user status recognizer recognizes at least one of a movement of the face of the user and a movement of a line of sight of the user.

4. The recognition device according to claim 3, further comprising:

a camera for capturing an image of the user; and

a display section disposed in a substantially identical direction as the camera, wherein

the advice presenter displays the advice data selected by the advice selector on the display section,

the user status recognizer recognizes the movement of the user'"'"'s face based on the image captured by the camera to integrate a duration when the user'"'"'s face is inclined toward the display section with respect to a condition that the user'"'"'s face directs a work object in forward direction, and recognizes the movement of the user'"'"'s line of sight based on the image captured by the camera to integrate the number of times by which a duration when the user'"'"'s line of sight is substantially aligned with the direction of the display section is shorter than a predetermined duration, and

the user dependence estimator estimates whether the user'"'"'s dependence degree on the currently presented advice data has increased or decreased, based on the duration and the number of times integrated by the user status recognizer.

5. The recognition device according to claim 4, wherein

the advice data storage stores multiple advice data in correlation to a proficiency of the user with respect to the work, and

the advice selector selects, from the advice data storage, the advice data correlated to a proficiency higher than the proficiency corresponding to the currently presented advice data, if the user dependence estimator estimates that the user'"'"'s dependence degree on the currently presented advice data has lowered.

6. The recognition device according to claim 4, wherein

the user status recognizer recognizes a movement of the face of the user based on an image captured by the camera to integrate a first duration when the user'"'"'s face directs the display section in forward direction, and integrate a second duration when the user'"'"'s face is inclined toward the display section with respect to a condition that the user'"'"'s face directs a work object in forward direction by an angle smaller than an angle defined by a direction in which the user'"'"'s face directs the work object in forward direction and a direction in which the user'"'"'s face directs the display section in forward direction;

and a movement of a line of sight of the user based on the image captured by the camera to integrate the number of times by which a duration when the user'"'"'s line of sight is substantially aligned with a direction of the display section is shorter than a predetermined duration, and

the user dependence estimator estimates the following;

the user'"'"'s dependence degree has increased, if an integrated value of the first duration obtained in a predetermined current measuring period is larger than an integrated value of the first duration obtained in a predetermined last measuring period;

the user'"'"'s dependence degree has lowered to a first stage, if the integrated value of the first duration obtained in the predetermined current measuring period is not larger than the integrated value of the first duration obtained in the predetermined last measuring period, and if an integrated value of the second duration obtained in the predetermined current measuring period is larger than an integrated value of the second duration obtained in the predetermined last measuring period;

the user'"'"'s dependence degree has lowered to a second stage lower than the first stage, if the integrated value of the first duration obtained in the predetermined current measuring period is not larger than the integrated value of the first duration obtained in the predetermined last measuring period, and if the integrated value of the second duration obtained in the predetermined current measuring period is not larger than the integrated value of the second duration obtained in the predetermined last measuring period, and if an integrated value of the number of times obtained in the predetermined current measuring period is larger than an integrated value of the number of times obtained in the predetermined last measuring period; and

the user'"'"'s dependence degree has lowered to a third stage lower than the second stage, if the integrated value of the number of times obtained in the predetermined last measuring period is larger than an integrated value of the number of times obtained in a predetermined second from the last measuring period, and if the integrated value of the number of times obtained in the predetermined current measuring period is not larger than the integrated value of the number of times obtained in the predetermined last measuring period.

7. The recognition device according to claim 6, wherein

the advice data storage stores the advice data in accordance with the first stage, the second stage, and the third stage, and

the advice selector selects the advice data in accordance with the first stage from the advice data storage, if the user dependence estimator estimates that the user'"'"'s dependence degree has lowered to the first stage, selects the advice data in accordance with the second stage from the advice data storage, if the user dependence estimator estimates that the user'"'"'s dependence degree has lowered to the second stage, and selects the advice data in accordance with the third stage from the advice data storage, if the user dependence estimator estimates that the user'"'"'s dependence degree has lowered to the third stage.

8. The recognition device according to claim 6, wherein

the user status recognizer recognizes the movement of the user'"'"'s line of sight based on the image captured by the camera to integrate the number of times by which the duration when the user'"'"'s line of sight is substantially aligned with the direction of the display section is not longer than 1.5 seconds.

9. The recognition device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a work contents acceptor for accepting selection of a work contents for which the user wishes to obtain an advice from a number of work contents, and

the advice selector selects the advice data in accordance with the work contents accepted by the work contents acceptor from the advice data storage.

10. The recognition device according to claim 1, wherein

the advice data storage stores the advice data for supporting the user in performing a cooking operation.

11. The recognition device according to claim 1, wherein

the advice data storage stores the advice data for supporting the user in driving an automobile.

12. A recognition method, comprising:

an advice selecting step of selecting advice data for a work from an advice data storage for storing the advice data for supporting the user in performing the work;

an advice presenting step of presenting the user with the advice data selected in the advice selecting step;

a user status recognizing step of recognizing a reaction of the user to the advice data presented in the advice presenting step; and

a user dependence estimating step of estimating a dependence degree of the user indicating how much the user relies on the advice data presented in the advice presenting step, based on the user'"'"'s reaction recognized in the user status recognizing step, wherein

in the advice selecting step, the advice data in accordance with the user'"'"'s dependence degree estimated in the user dependence estimating step is selected from the advice data storage.

13. A computer-readable recording medium recorded with a recognition program for causing a computer to function as:

an advice data storage for storing advice data for supporting a user in performing a work;

an advice selector for selecting advice data for the work from the advice data storage;

an advice presenter for presenting the user with the advice data selected by the advice selector;

a user status recognizer for recognizing a reaction of the user to the advice data presented by the advice presenter; and

a user dependence estimator for estimating a dependence degree of the user indicating how much the user relies on the advice data presented by the advice presenter, based on the user'"'"'s reaction recognized by the user status recognizer, wherein

the advice selector selects, from the advice data storage, the advice data in accordance with the user'"'"'s dependence degree estimated by the user dependence estimator.