User Grouping Apparatus And User Grouping Method

• US 20090265222A1
• Filed: 07/10/2007
• Published: 10/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Chatani, Masayuki, Numaoka, Chisato
• Granted Patent: US 8,564,415 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10366 the interrogation device being adapted for miscellaneous applications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

An RFID aggregate storage stores a radio-frequency ID aggregate structure. The RFID aggregate structure is an aggregated data structure of a plurality of RFIDs, in which each RFID is associated with a location and time read out from a RFID tag, and RFID related information, hierarchically constructed by classifying RFIDs based on the readout location and further by classifying them based on the readout time. A proximity evaluator evaluates the proximity between the first user'"'"'s RF ID aggregate and the second user'"'"'s RFID aggregate. A user classifier classifies the first user and the second user in one group when the proximity is smaller than a predetermined threshold value.

Claims

1. A user grouping apparatus comprising:

a storage which stores a wireless ID aggregate structure, which is an aggregated data structure of a plurality of wireless IDs set up for each wireless management apparatus used by a user, in which each wireless ID is associated with a location and time, where and when the corresponding wireless ID was read out from a wireless ID tag by a wireless ID management apparatus, and wireless ID related information which is information associated with the corresponding wireless ID, hierarchically constructed by classifying the plurality of wireless IDs based on the readout location and further by classifying them based on the readout time;

an evaluator which evaluates the proximity between a first user'"'"'s wireless ID aggregate and a second user'"'"'s wireless ID aggregate; and

a classifier which classifies the first user and the second user in one group when the proximity is smaller than a predetermined threshold value.

2. The user grouping apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the evaluator evaluates the proximity between the readout locations of a plurality of wireless IDs included in the first user'"'"'s wireless ID aggregate and the readout locations of a plurality of wireless IDs included in the second user'"'"'s wireless ID aggregate.

3. The user grouping apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the evaluator, regarding the first user and the second user, who were classified into one group by the classifier, further evaluates the proximity between the readout times of a plurality of wireless IDs included in the first user'"'"'s wireless ID aggregate and the readout times of a plurality of wireless IDs included in the second user'"'"'s wireless ID aggregate;

and the classifier, which when the readout time proximity is greater than a predetermined threshold value, cancels the classification of the first user and the second user, who were once classified into one group.

4. The user grouping apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the evaluator evaluates the proximity between the feature quantity of information related to a plurality of wireless IDs included in the first user'"'"'s wireless ID aggregate and the feature quantity of information related to a plurality of wireless IDs included in the second user'"'"'s wireless ID aggregate.

5. A user grouping method comprising the steps of:

reading out from a storage apparatus a wireless ID aggregate structure, which is an aggregated data structure of a plurality of wireless IDs set up for each wireless management apparatus used by a user, in which each wireless ID is associated with a location and time, where and when the corresponding wireless ID was read out from a wireless ID tag by a wireless ID management apparatus, and wireless ID related information which is information associated with the corresponding wireless ID, hierarchically constructed by classifying the plurality of wireless IDs based on the readout location and further by classifying them based on the readout time;

evaluating the proximity between a first user'"'"'s wireless ID aggregate and a second user'"'"'s wireless ID aggregate; and

classifying the first user and the second user in one group when the proximity is smaller than a predetermined threshold value.