CONTENT MANAGING APPARATUS, CONTENT MANAGING METHOD, CONTENT MANAGING PROGRAM, AND INTEGRATED CIRCUIT

• US 20120296978A1
• Filed: 11/25/2011
• Published: 11/22/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Inoue, Ryuji, Tsukidate, Ryota
• Granted Patent: US 9,098,385 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/00 Interconnection of, or transfer of information or other signals between, memories, input/output devices or central processing units interface circuits for specific input/output devices G06F3/00 ; multiprogram control therefor G06F9/46; multiprocessor systems G06F15/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00 Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00148 Storage information retrieval G06F16/00

Abstract

A content managing apparatus includes: an obtaining unit which obtains (i) a first content item held by a first user, (ii) a metadata item that indicates attribute information for classifying the first content item, and (iii) information on a sharing state, between the first user and a second user who is a user other than the first user, of a second content item having a metadata item identical to the metadata item held by the first content item; a degree of interest calculating unit which calculates a degree of interest that is an index indicating an interest of the second user on the metadata item; and a managing unit which manages the first content item based on the degree of interest of the second user.

Claims

1. A content managing apparatus for managing a content item, the apparatus comprising:

an obtaining unit configured to obtain (i) a first content item held by a first user, (ii) a metadata item that indicates attribute information for classifying the first content item, and (iii) information on a sharing state of a second content item between the first user and a second user who is a user other than the first user, the second content item being a content item having a metadata item identical to the metadata item held by the first content item;

a degree of interest calculating unit configured to calculate a degree of interest of the second user, based on the information on the sharing state of the second content item, the degree of interest being an index indicating an interest in the metadata item; and

a managing unit configured to manage the first content item, based on the degree of interest of the second user.

2. The content managing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the managing unit is configured to determine that the first content item should be shared with the second user when the degree of interest of the second user is higher than or equal to a predetermined first threshold.

3. The content managing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the managing unit is configured to determine that deletion of the first content item by the first user should be prohibited when the degree of interest of the second user is higher than or equal to a predetermined first threshold.

4. The content managing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the managing unit is configured to determine that the first content item should be deleted when the degree of interest of the second user is lower than or equal to a predetermined first threshold.

5. The content managing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the information on the sharing state is the number of content-sharing times that is the number of times that the second content item has been shared between the second user and the first user, and

the degree of interest calculating unit is configured to calculate the degree of interest as a value obtained by dividing, by the number of content-sharing times, a sum of values corresponding to at least one of (i) the number of views, (ii) the number of comment input times, (iii) an amount of view time, and (iv) the number of characters in a comment, of the second user for the second content item.

6. The content managing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the information on the sharing state is the number of content-sharing times indicating the number of times that the second content item has been shared between the second user and the first user, and

the degree of interest calculating unit is configured to calculate the degree of interest as a value obtained by dividing, by the number of content-sharing times, a sum of values corresponding to at least one of (i) a period of time from a point when the second content item is shared between the second user and the first user to a point when the second user views the second content item for the first time, (ii) a period of time from a point when the second user confirms the sharing state of the second content item between the second user and the first user to a point when the second user views the second content item for the first time, (iii) a difference obtained by subtracting a value corresponding to the number of negative comments on the second content item from a value corresponding to the number of positive comments on the second content item, (iv) a period of time from a point when the second user views the second content item to a point when the second user views the same second content item next time, (v) a period of time from a point when the second user views the second content item to a point when the second user inputs a comment on the second content item, and (vi) a ratio of a period of view time of the second content item by the second user to a total view time of all content items by the second user during a predetermined period of time, the negative comments and positive comments being inputted by the second user.

7. The content managing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the managing unit is configured to (i) examine whether or not the degree of interest of the second user is higher than or equal to a predetermined first threshold, and determine that the first content item should be shared in a first mode between the first user and the second user when the degree of interest is higher than or equal to the first threshold, and

(ii) for the second user whose degree of interest is lower than the first threshold, examine whether or not the degree of interest is higher than or equal to a predetermined second threshold, and determine that the first content item should be shared in a second mode between the first user and the second user when the degree of interest is lower than the first threshold and higher than or equal to the second threshold, the second mode being different from the first mode.

8. The content managing apparatus according to claim 7,

wherein the managing unit is configured to (i) in the first mode, cause the first content item to be shared between the first user and the second user without asking the first user for confirmation, and

(ii) in the second mode, ask the first user for confirmation, and cause the first content item to be shared between the first user and the second user only when an instruction to share the first content item is received.

9. The content managing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the managing unit is configured to use, as the degree of interest of the second user when the first content item has the metadata item including a plurality of metadata items, one of (i) a highest degree of interest among degrees of interest of the second user in the respective metadata items, (ii) a lowest degree of interest among the degrees of interest of the second user in the respective metadata items, and (iii) an average of the degrees of interest of the second user in the respective metadata items.

10. The content managing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the managing unit is configured to (i) cause the first content item to be shared in a third mode with the second user whose degree of interest is determined as being on an increase, and

(ii) cause the first content item to be shared in a fourth mode with the second user whose degree of interest is determined as being on a decrease, the fourth mode being different from the third mode.

11. The content managing apparatus according to claim 10

wherein the managing unit is configured to (i) determine that the degree of interest is on the increase when the degree of interest continuously increases the most-recent predetermined number of times, and

(ii) determine that the degree of interest is on the decrease when the degree of interest continuously decreases the most-recent predetermined number of times.

12. The content managing apparatus according to claim 5,

further comprising a communication unit,

wherein the managing unit is configured to cause the first content item to be shared between the first user and the second user when it is determined that the first content item should be shared between the first user and the second user, and

the communication unit is configured to notify the second user that the first content item is viewable and to increment the number of content-sharing times by one.

13. The content managing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the managing unit is configured to generate a title corresponding to the first content item, based on the metadata item held by the first content item and a past content item shared state between the second user and the first user.

14. The content managing apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising:

a determining unit; and

a title generating unit

wherein the determining unit is configured to determine whether or not the metadata item held by the first content item and a metadata item held by a content item previously shared between the first user and the second user are different,

(A) when the determining unit determines that the metadata item held by the first content item and the metadata item held by the content item previously shared between the first user and the second user are different, the title generating unit is configured to generate the title in a fifth mode,

(B) when the determining unit determines that the metadata item held by the first content item and the metadata item held by the content item previously shared between the first user and the second user are identical, the determining unit is configured to determine whether or not an elapsed time since the content item was shared last time is longer than or equal to a predetermined third threshold, the title generating unit is configured to;

generate the title in a sixth mode that is different from the fifth mode when the elapsed time is determined as being longer than or equal to the third threshold; and

generate the title in a seventh mode that is different from the both of the fifth mode and the sixth mode when the elapsed time is determined as being shorter than the third threshold.

15. A content managing method for managing a content item, the method comprising:

obtaining (i) a first content item held by a first user, (ii) a metadata item that indicates attribute information for classifying the first content item, and (iii) information on a sharing state of a second content item between the first user and a second user who is a user other than the first user, the second content item being a content item having a metadata item identical to the metadata item held by the first content item;

calculating a degree of interest of the second user, based on the information on the sharing state of the second content item, the degree of interest being an index indicating an interest in the metadata item; and

managing the first content item, based on the degree of interest of the second user.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium for use in a computer, the recording medium having a computer program recorded thereon for causing the computer to execute:

each of the steps included in the content managing method according to claim 15.

17. An integrated circuit comprising:

an obtaining unit configured to obtain (i) a first content item held by a first user, (ii) a metadata item that indicates attribute information for classifying the first content item, and (iii) information on a sharing state of a second content item between the first user and a second user who is a user other than the first user, the second content item being a content item having a metadata item identical to the metadata item held by the first content item;

a degree of interest calculating unit configured to calculate a degree of interest of the second user, based on the information on the sharing state of the second content item, the degree of interest being an index indicating an interest in the metadata item; and

a managing unit configured to manage the first content item, based on the degree of interest of the second user.