DEVICE FOR ESTIMATING USER OPERATION INTENTION AND ELECTRONIC DEVICE USING THE SAME

• US 20090265630A1
• Filed: 04/26/2007
• Published: 10/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Morikawa, Koji, Takata, Kazutoyo
• Granted Patent: US 8,656,280 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/708
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 17/00 Diagnosis, testing or measuring for television systems or their details
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42206 characterized by hardware details
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42646 for reading from or writing on a non-volatile solid state storage medium, e.g. DVD, CD-ROM
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/432 Content retrieval operation from a local storage medium, e.g. hard-disk details of retrieval of video data and associated meta data in video databases G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4586 Content update operation triggered locally, e.g. by comparing the version of software modules in a DVB carousel to the version stored locally deployment, distribution, installation, update of software G06F8/65; error detection or correction of the data by redundancy during software upgrading G06F11/1433; arrangements for updating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/25
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/488 Data services, e.g. news ticker systems specially adapted for using meteorological information in broadcast systems H04H60/71
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/44 Receiver circuitry for the reception of television signals according to analogue transmission standards H04N5/14 takes precedence

Abstract

There is provided an apparatus which provides manipulation assistance, even in the case where a user trying to executing a certain function has performed a wrong manipulation, by inferring the function which the user originally wanted to execute.

The apparatus according to the present invention is to be used in an electronic device having an input section to receive a manipulation by a user and operating based on the user'"'"'s manipulation, and infers a manipulation intent of the user. This apparatus includes a storage which stores a database in which a function of the electronic device is associated with a manipulation that is highly mistakable when a user having an experience of manipulating an electronic device other than the electronic device uses the electronic device; and a manipulation assistance section for, when the manipulation by the user is wrong, determining a substance of manipulation assistance for executing a function which is intended by the user, in accordance with the function which is associated with the highly-mistakable manipulation in the database. This apparatus determines an operation of the electronic device based on the substance of manipulation assistance, and outputs an instruction to the electronic device.

Claims

1. An electronic device having an input section to receive a manipulation by a user and operating based on the manipulation, comprising:

a storage section which stores a database in which a function of the electronic device is associated with a manipulation that is highly mistakable when a user having an experience of manipulating an electronic device other than the electronic device uses the electronic device;

a processing section for, when the manipulation by the user is wrong, generating manipulation assistance information in accordance with the function which is associated with the highly-mistakable manipulation in the database; and

an output section for outputting a signal for presenting the manipulation assistance information, wherein,

the processing section executes a function in accordance with a manipulation which is received in response to the presentation of the manipulation assistance information.

2. An apparatus to be used in an electronic device having an input section to receive a manipulation by a user and operating based on the manipulation, comprising:

a storage section which stores a database in which a function of the electronic device is associated with a manipulation that is highly mistakable when a user having an experience of manipulating an electronic device other than the electronic device uses the electronic device; and

a manipulation assistance section for, when the manipulation by the user is wrong, determining a substance of manipulation assistance for executing a function which is intended by the user, in accordance with the function which is associated with the highly-mistakable manipulation in the database, wherein,

the apparatus for inferring manipulation intent determines an operation of the electronic device based on the substance of manipulation assistance, and outputs an instruction to the electronic device.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, further comprising an update section for updating the database depending on whether the manipulation is wrong or not.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein, when the manipulation is proper, the update section updates the database based on information of a function candidate which is identical to the function corresponding to the manipulation.

5. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the database retains a set in which information of at least one function is associated with a numerical value corresponding to the at least one function.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, further comprising an inference section for, when the manipulation by the user is wrong, selecting the at least one function based on the size of the numerical value, wherein,

in accordance with the at least one selected function, the manipulation assistance section determines the substance of manipulation assistance for executing the function which is intended by the user.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein,

the database retains a plurality of sets in which information of a plurality of functions is associated with numerical values respectively corresponding to the plurality of functions;

and

the numerical values are assigned in accordance with closeness between a function which is desired by the user who has performed the highly-mistakable manipulation and each of the plurality of functions.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein,

at least one attribute is assigned in advance to each of the plurality of functions;

and

when the manipulation is proper, the update section searches the database based on an attribute of a first function that corresponds to the manipulation, identifies a second function to which the same attribute is assigned, and changes the numerical value corresponding to the second function.

9. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein,

the database retains a set in which information of at least one function is associated with information of a device group concerning a model of the other electronic device;

and

when the manipulation is wrong, the update section updates the database based on information of the model.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising an inference section for identifying the device group based on information of a device group of the set corresponding to the wrong manipulation.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein,

the database retains a plurality of said sets;

and

the update section deletes any set that does not contain information of the identified device group.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein a plurality of said device groups are defined, each device group being defined based on a system of manipulations which is common to a plurality of models.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein a plurality of said device groups are defined, each device group being defined based on a system of manipulations of one model.