INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS AND INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD

• US 20100238183A1
• Filed: 02/18/2010
• Published: 09/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Saturn Licensing LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Sakanaka, Motoe, Sugiue, Yuki
• Granted Patent: US 8,606,797 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/501
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• 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 21/4668 for recommending content, e.g. movies
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4882 for displaying messages, e.g. warnings, reminders arrangements for providing short real-time information to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

There is provided an information processing apparatus including a storage unit where function attribute information, user operation information, and recommendation degree information are recorded to be associated with one another, the attribute information indicating an attribute about a function of a predetermined device, the operation information indicating content of a predetermined user operation input to the device, and the degree information indicating a recommendation degree which serves as a reference for outputting, on a priority basis, display for recommending use of the function to a display apparatus, a recommendation degree information updating unit that updates, when a predetermined user operation is input, the degree information to increase the degree associated with function attribute information, and a recommended function determining unit that determines, based on the degree information recorded in the unit, a function with a highest degree as a recommended function.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus comprising:

a storage unit in which function attribute information, user operation information, and recommendation degree information are recorded so as to be associated with one another, the function attribute information indicating an attribute about a function of a predetermined device, the user operation information indicating content of a predetermined user operation input to the predetermined device, and the recommendation degree information indicating a recommendation degree which serves as a reference for outputting, on a priority basis, display for recommending use of the function to a display apparatus;

a recommendation degree information updating unit that updates, when a user operation that matches the user operation information associated with a piece of function attribute information is input, the recommendation degree information to increase the recommendation degree associated with the piece of function attribute information;

a recommended function determining unit that determines, based on the pieces of recommendation degree information recorded in the storage unit, a function with a highest recommendation degree as a recommended function, from among functions whose respective pieces of function attribute information are stored in the storage unit; and

a display control unit that causes the display apparatus to provide recommendation display for recommending use of the determined recommended function.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the storage unit further records trigger information so as to be associated with the function attribute information, the trigger information indicating content of a user operation which serves as a trigger to cause the display apparatus to provide recommendation display,

the information processing apparatus further comprises a recommendation display instructing unit that generates, when a user operation that matches a user operation associated with the trigger information is input, an instruction signal and outputs the instruction signal to the display control unit, the instruction signal being a signal for allowing the display control unit to perform control of the display apparatus, and

in response to the instruction signal output from the recommendation display instructing unit, the display control unit causes the display apparatus to provide the recommendation display.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when a user operation is input to execute the recommended function determined by the recommended function determining unit and the input user operation matches a user operation associated with the function attribute information, the recommendation degree information updating unit updates the recommendation degree information to decrease the recommendation degree.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an external information obtaining unit that records in the storage unit external information that is obtained from one or two or more external devices which are communicable through a network and that includes the function attribute information, the user operation information, and the recommendation degree information of the one or two or more external devices.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a latest information updating unit that newly obtains the function attribute information, the user operation information, and the recommendation degree information through a network or based on a user input and updates the function attribute information, the user operation information, and the recommendation degree information which are recorded in the storage unit.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recommendation degree information updating unit associates first function attribute information of a predetermined function with second function attribute information of a function used in association with the predetermined function, and when the predetermined function is executed, the recommendation degree information updating unit increases both a recommendation degree associated with the first function attribute information and a recommendation degree associated with the second function attribute information.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the function attribute information includes function manipulation explanation data which is data on a manipulation explanation of a function of the predetermined device, and

the display control unit provides display by including function manipulation explanation display for the function manipulation explanation data is included in the recommendation display.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a number-of-executions-of-recommended-function calculating unit that adds up a number of executions of a recommended function which indicates a number of times a function in relation to the recommendation display is executed by a user operation within a predetermined period of time;

a function usage rate calculating unit that calculates a function usage rate which indicates a rate of a number of functions for which a usage history exists with respect to a number of all functions recorded in the storage unit;

a recommendation standard adjusting unit that adjusts a recommended function standard in accordance with fluctuations in the number of executions of a recommended function and the function usage rate, the recommended function standard defining a number of functions selectable as a recommended function by the recommended function determining unit; and

a number-of-recommended-functions determining unit that determines a number of functions selectable as a recommended function, based on the recommended function standard, wherein

the recommended function determining unit determines a function with a highest recommendation degree as a function to be recommended to a user, based on the determination made by the number-of-recommended-functions determining unit.

9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein

the recommendation standard adjusting unit adjusts a recommendation timing standard in accordance with fluctuations in the number of executions of a recommended function and the function usage rate, the recommendation timing standard indicating timing at which the display control unit causes the display apparatus to provide the recommendation display,

the information processing apparatus further comprises a recommendation timing determining unit that determines timing at which the recommendation display can be provided, based on the recommendation timing standard, and

the display control unit causes the display apparatus to provide recommendation display for the recommended function at predetermined timing based on the determination made by the recommendation timing determining unit.

10. An information processing method, comprising the steps of:

based on function attribute information, user operation information, and recommendation degree information which are entered in advance, the function attribute information indicating an attribute about a function of a predetermined device, the user operation information indicating content of a predetermined user operation input to the predetermined device, and the recommendation degree information indicating a recommendation degree which serves as a reference for outputting, on a priority basis, display for recommending use of the function to a display apparatus,

updating, when a user operation that matches the user operation information associated with a piece of function attribute information is input, the recommendation degree information to increase the recommendation degree associated with the piece of function attribute information;

determining, based on the recommendation degree information, a function with a highest recommendation degree as a recommended function, from among functions whose respective pieces of function attribute information are entered; and

causing the display apparatus to provide recommendation display for recommending use of the determined recommended function.