INFORMATION PRESENTING DEVICE, INFORMATION PRESENTING METHOD, INFORMATION PRESENTING PROGRAM, AND INTEGRATED CIRCUIT

• US 20100010986A1
• Filed: 08/23/2007
• Published: 01/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Icho, Keiji, Horii, Noriaki, Saso, Atsushi
• Granted Patent: US 8,244,673 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: N/A
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/44 Browsing; Visualisation therefor

Abstract

An information presenting device for narrowing down information such as contents beneficial for users and stimulating interest in users from various viewpoints, and presenting the information to users in an easily ascertainable manner. A content recommending device 1 displays an image 1100. A commonality map image 1121 includes a title image 1131, a Venn diagram image 1134, and a details button image 1137. The Venn diagram in the commonality map image 1111 relating to all content is narrowed down to a Venn diagram about the set containing, as elements, content IDs of content having an attribute value “Mayumi Hamada” for an attribute “artist”. In the content recommending device 1, a multiple profile acquiring unit 101 acquires viewing/listening history tables including content IDs of content viewed/listened to in player terminals, and a profile common relationship ascertaining unit 102 calculates an extent of a common portion of the acquired viewing/listening history tables. The commonality is expressed as a Venn diagram.

Claims

1. An information presenting device for presenting a relationship between pluralities of data pieces, each plurality of data pieces being held by a respective one of a plurality of users, the information presenting device comprising:

an acquiring unit operable to acquire at least (i) a first information group composed of a plurality of data pieces each held by a first user and attached with a first attribute and a second attribute, and (ii) a second information group composed of a plurality of data pieces each held by a second user and attached with the first attribute and the second attribute;

a generating unit operable to, with respect to each of a plurality of values of the first attribute, extract data pieces having a same value of the first attribute from the first information group and the second information group, thereby generating a first subgroup consisting of the data pieces having the same value from the first information group, and a second subgroup consisting of the data pieces having the same value from the second information group;

a calculating unit operable to, with respect to each of pair of generated first and second subgroups, each pair pertaining to a different one of the first attribute values, calculate a commonality between second attributes attached to the data pieces in the first subgroup and second attributes attached to the data pieces in the second subgroup in the pair;

a determining unit operable to determine a presentation order in which to present all the calculated commonalities, based on how many data pieces the first and second subgroups in each respective pair contain; and

a presenting unit operable to present the calculated commonalities arranged in the determined presentation order.

2. The information presenting device of claim 1, wherein

the presenting unit includes:

a set selecting sub-unit operable to, with respect to each pair, select one of (a) a product set of the first subgroup and the second subgroup in the pair and (b) a difference set of (i) the first subgroup or the second subgroup in the pair and (ii) the product set; and

a display sub-unit operable to display the commonalities arranged in the determined presentation order and in a manner that the selected one of the product set and the difference set is easily distinguishable from any other displayed set.

3. The information presenting device of claim 2, wherein

the set selecting sub-unit selects the difference set when a ratio of the number of elements in the product set and the number of elements in the union is a predetermined value or higher.

4. The information presenting device of claim 2, wherein

the set selecting sub-unit selects the product set when a ratio of the number of elements in the product set and the number of elements in the union is lower than a predetermined value.

5. The information presenting device of claim 1, wherein

the determining unit determines the presentation order as a descending order of how many elements each of a plurality of unions contains, the unions each being a union of the first and second subgroups in a respective pair.

6. The information presenting device of claim 1, wherein

the determining unit determines the presentation order as a descending order of size of the commonalities of the pairs.

7. The information presenting device of claim 1, wherein

the calculating unit further calculates a commonality between first attributes attached to the data pieces in the first subgroup and first attributes attached to the data pieces in the second subgroup, and

the presenting unit is further operable to present the calculated commonality of the first attributes in a visualized manner.

8. The information presenting device of claim 7, wherein

the presenting unit is further operable to receive a switch instruction, and when the switch instruction is received, switch from the presentation of the commonality of the first attributes to the presentation of the commonalities of the second attributes, the presentation of the commonalities of the second attributes being details of what is presented in the presentation of the commonality of the first attributes.

9. The information presenting device of claim 7, wherein

the presenting unit is further operable to receive a switch instruction, and when the switch instruction is received, switch from the presentation of the commonality of the first attributes to a presentation of the commonalities of the first attributes and the second attributes, the presentation of the commonalities of the first attributes and the second attributes being details of what is presented in the presentation of the commonality of the first attributes.

10. The information presenting device of claim 7, wherein

the presenting unit, when the commonality is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, selects a difference set of (a) the first information group or the second information group and (b) a product set of the first information group and the second information group, and

displays the selected difference set in a manner that the selected difference set is easily distinguishable from any other displayed set.

11. The information presentation device of claim 7, wherein

the presenting unit, when the commonality is less than a predetermined value, selects a product set of the first information group and the second information group, and

displays the selected product set in a manner that the selected difference set is easily distinguishable from any other displayed set.

12. The information presenting device of claim 7, wherein

the presenting unit displays the calculated commonality of the first attributes and the calculated commonalities of the second attributes of each pair together.

13. The information presenting device of claim 1, wherein

each first attribute is a grouping ID showing a grouping to which the respective data piece belongs, and each second attribute is a data ID that identifies the respective data piece.

14. The information presenting device of claim 1, wherein

each first attribute is a grouping ID showing a grouping to which the respective data piece belongs, and each second attribute is a different grouping ID to the respective first attribute.

15. The information presenting device of claim 1, wherein

the first and second attributes compose a tree structure in which the first attributes are on a top level and the second attributes are on a level below the top level, and

possible values of the second attributes are predetermined in advance in correspondence with contents of the first attributes.

16. The information presenting device of claim 1, wherein

the presenting unit displays each commonality in a visualized manner by displaying a Venn diagram showing the relationship between the first subgroup and the second subgroup.

17. The information presenting device of claim 1, wherein

each data piece is content.

18. The information presenting device of claim 1, wherein

each data piece is log information.

19. The information presenting device of claim 1, further comprising:

a commonality calculating unit operable to calculate a commonality relating to the acquired first information group and the acquired second information group;

a set selecting unit operable to, based on the commonality calculated by the commonality calculating unit, select one of (a) a common set consisting of common portions of the first information group and the second information group, and (b) a non-common set consisting of one of (i) a portion of the first information group, excluding the common portion of the first information group and (ii) a portion of the second information group, excluding the common portion of the second information group; and

an information selecting unit operable to select data information pieces included in the one of the common set and the non-common set selected by the set selecting unit.

20. The information presenting device of claim 19, wherein

the set selecting unit selects the non-common set when the commonality calculated by the commonality calculating unit is a predetermined value or higher.

21. The information presenting device of claim 19, wherein

the set selecting unit selects the common set when the commonality calculated by the commonality calculating unit is lower than a predetermined value.

22. The information presenting device of claim 19, wherein

the commonality calculating unit (a) calculates a first number showing how many data information pieces are included in at least one of the first information group and the second information group, (b) calculates a second number showing how many data information pieces are included in the common set, and (c) calculates, as the commonality, a ratio of the second number to the first number.

23. The information presentation device of claim 19, wherein

each data information piece includes a data ID identifying the respective data piece, and a grouping ID showing which grouping the data piece belongs to,

the acquiring unit further (a) acquires a third information group composed of a plurality of data information pieces, and a fourth information group composed of a plurality of data information pieces, (b) with respect to each value of the grouping IDs included in the data information pieces in the third information group and the fourth information group, generates a first information group consisting of one or more data information pieces whose grouping ID has the value from among the data information pieces in the third information group, and generates a second information group consisting of one or more data information pieces whose grouping ID has the value from among the data information pieces in the fourth information group,

the commonality calculating unit is further operable to calculate, with respect to each value of the grouping IDs, a commonality of the first information group and the second information group corresponding to the grouping ID,

the set selecting unit is further operable to (a) select at least one of the grouping IDs in descending order of size of the commonalities corresponding to the values of the grouping IDs, and (b) based on the commonality corresponding to the selected grouping ID, select one of (i) a common set consisting of common portions of the first and second information groups corresponding to the value of the selected grouping ID, and (ii) a non-common set consisting portions from the first information group and the second information group corresponding to the value of the grouping ID excluding the common portions, and

the information selecting unit selects one or more data information pieces included in the one of the common set and the non-common set selected by the set selecting unit.

24. An information presenting method used in an information presenting device for presenting a relationship between pluralities of data pieces, each plurality of data pieces being held by a respective one of a plurality of users, the information presenting method comprising:

an acquiring step of acquiring at least (i) a first information group composed of a plurality of data pieces each held by a first user and attached with a first attribute and a second attribute, and (ii) a second information group composed of a plurality of data pieces each held by a second user and attached with the first attribute and the second attribute;

a generating step of, with respect to each of a plurality of values of the first attribute, extracting data pieces having a same value of the first attribute from the first information group and the second information group, thereby generating a first subgroup consisting of the data pieces having the same value from the first information group, and a second subgroup consisting of the data pieces having the same value from the second information group;

a calculating step of, with respect to each of pair of generated first and second subgroups, each pair pertaining to a different one of the first attribute values, calculating a commonality between second attributes attached to the data pieces in the first subgroup and second attributes attached to the data pieces in the second subgroup in the pair;

a determining step of determining a presentation order in which to present all the calculated commonalities, based on how many data pieces the first and second subgroups in each respective pair contain; and

a presenting step of presenting the calculated commonalities arranged in the determined presentation order.

25. An information presenting program of the present invention is an information presenting program used in an information presenting device for presenting a relationship between pluralities of data pieces, each plurality of data pieces being held by a respective one of a plurality of users, the information presenting program causing a computer to execute the steps of:

an acquiring step of acquiring at least (i) a first information group composed of a plurality of data pieces each held by a first user and attached with a first attribute and a second attribute, and (ii) a second information group composed of a plurality of data pieces each held by a second user and attached with the first attribute and the second attribute;

a generating step of, with respect to each of a plurality of values of the first attribute, extracting data pieces having a same value of the first attribute from the first information group and the second information group, thereby generating a first subgroup consisting of the data pieces having the same value from the first information group, and a second subgroup consisting of the data pieces having the same value from the second information group;

a calculating step of, with respect to each of pair of generated first and second subgroups, each pair pertaining to a different one of the first attribute values, calculating a commonality between second attributes attached to the data pieces in the first subgroup and second attributes attached to the data pieces in the second subgroup in the pair;

a determining step of determining a presentation order in which to present all the calculated commonalities, based on how many data pieces the first and second subgroups in each respective pair contain; and

a presenting step of presenting the calculated commonalities arranged in the determined presentation order.

26. An integrated circuit used in an information presenting device for presenting a relationship between pluralities of data pieces, each plurality of data pieces being held by a respective one of a plurality of users, the integrated circuit comprising:

an acquiring unit operable to acquire at least (i) a first information group composed of a plurality of data pieces each held by a first user and attached with a first attribute and a second attribute, and (ii) a second information group composed of a plurality of data pieces each held by a second user and attached with the first attribute and the second attribute;

a generating unit operable to, with respect to each of a plurality of values of the first attribute, extract data pieces having a same value of the first attribute from the first information group and the second information group, thereby generating a first subgroup consisting of the data pieces having the same value from the first information group, and a second subgroup consisting of the data pieces having the same value from the second information group;

a calculating unit operable to, with respect to each of pair of generated first and second subgroups, each pair pertaining to a different one of the first attribute values, calculate a commonality between second attributes attached to the data pieces in the first subgroup and second attributes attached to the data pieces in the second subgroup in the pair;

a determining unit operable to determine a presentation order in which to present all the calculated commonalities, based on how many data pieces the first and second subgroups in each respective pair contain; and

a presenting unit operable to present the calculated commonalities arranged in the determined presentation order.