CONTENT PROCESSING DEVICE, CONTENT PROCESSING METHOD, COMPUTER-READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM, AND INTEGRATED CIRCUIT

• US 20130080534A1
• Filed: 02/14/2012
• Published: 03/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2011
• 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: Ogawa, Kento, Yuki, Yasuhiro
• Granted Patent: US 8,949,335 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90335 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104

Abstract

A content processing device calculates a content topicality degree representing a degree of topicality of a content which serves as a topic between sharing users, based on subject information relating to a subjects in the content, sharing user information and social information; extracts a sharing user who does not appear in the subject of the content as an unappearing sharing user; calculates a content appropriateness degree representing a degree of appropriateness of the content to be shared between the sharing users in such a manner that the value for the content appropriateness degree decreases, as the degree of intimacy between the extracted unappearing sharing user and the subject increases; calculates a content evaluation value based on the content topicality degree and the content appropriateness degree; determines a priority based on the calculated content evaluation value; and controls output of the content according to the determined priority.

Claims

1. A content processing device for processing at least one or more contents, comprising:

an input section which allows a user to input a content;

a sharing user information managing section which manages sharing user information relating to at least one or more sharing users who share the content inputted from the input section;

a content information managing section which manages subject information relating to a subject included in the content;

a social information managing section which manages social information which specifies a relationship between the users, and a degree of intimacy between the users, the degree of intimacy being a digitized value representing intimacy between the users;

a content appropriateness degree calculating section which extracts a sharing user who does not appear in the subject of the content as an unappearing sharing user, and which calculates a content appropriateness degree in such a manner that the value for the content appropriateness degree decreases as the degree of intimacy between the extracted unappearing sharing user and the subject increases, with use of the subject information and the sharing user information, the content appropriateness degree being a digitized value representing a degree of appropriateness of the content to be shared between the sharing users;

a priority determining section which calculates a content evaluation value with use of the calculated content appropriateness degree, and which determines a priority relating to output of the content based on the calculated content evaluation value; and

an output control section which controls the output of the content, based on a determination result obtained by the priority determining section.

2. The content processing device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a content topicality degree calculating section which calculates a content topicality degree, based on the subject information, the sharing user information and the social information, the content topicality degree being a digitized value representing a topicality degree of the content which serves as a topic between the sharing users, wherein

the priority determining section calculates the content evaluation value with use of the calculated content topicality degree, as well as with use of the calculated content appropriateness degree.

3. The content processing device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a content information analyzing section which analyzes the subject information based on the content, wherein

the content information managing section manages content information in which the subject information and meta-information of the content are correlated with each other in the content,

the content information analyzing section classifies the content according to events based on the meta-information, and generates event information by specifying an event participant user who participated in an event based on the subject information, and

the content appropriateness degree calculating section extracts, from the event information, a sharing user who did not participate in the event as an event non-participant sharing user, and calculates a content appropriateness degree of the content of the event in such a manner that the value for the content appropriateness degree decreases, as the number of event non-participant sharing users increases and the degree of intimacy between the event non-participant sharing user and the event participant user increases.

4. The content processing device according to claim 3, wherein

the content topicality degree calculating section extracts, from the social information, a degree of intimacy between the sharing user and the subject included in the content, and calculates a content topicality degree in such a manner that the value for the content topicality degree increases as the number of subjects whose degrees of intimacy with respect to the sharing user are large increases in the content of the events, and

the priority determining section calculates a content evaluation value in such a manner that the content evaluation value increases as the value for the content topicality degree and the value for the content appropriateness degree increase in the content, and determines the priority of the content to be high in the descending order of the calculated content evaluation value.

5. The content processing device according to claim 3, wherein

the content information analyzing section specifies a content owner user who owns the content, and

the content appropriateness degree calculating section applies weighting to the content appropriateness degree in such a manner that the content appropriateness degree of the content of the event increases in the case where the degree of intimacy between the content owner user and the event non-participant sharing user is equal to or larger than a predetermined threshold value in the event.

6. The content processing device according to claim 3, wherein

the sharing user information includes information indicating a position of an address of the sharing user,

the content information managing section manages photographing position information indicating a position of a photographing place of the content, and

the content appropriateness degree calculating section applies weighting to the content appropriateness degree in such a manner that the content appropriateness degree of the content increases in the case where a distance between information indicating the position of the address of the event non-participant sharing user and the photographing position information of the content included in the event is equal to or larger than a predetermined threshold value in the event.

7. The content processing device according to claim 3, further comprising:

a user attribute managing section which manages a user attribute table for specifying a user attribute of all the users whose relationships have been defined with respect to a content owner user who owns the content, and a sharing content attribute policy which specifies an user attribute of the subject of which the content owner user permits content sharing with the sharing user in accordance with the user attribute of the sharing user, wherein

the content appropriateness degree calculating section specifies, from the user attribute table, a user attribute of the sharing user and a user attribute of the subject included in the content, specifies, from the sharing content attribute policy, a user attribute of a subject of which the content is sharable by the specified user attribute of the sharing user, and sets the content appropriateness degree to a predetermined value for decreasing the content appropriateness degree in the content including a subject having a user attribute of which content sharing is not permitted by the user attribute of the sharing user.

8. The content processing device according to claim 1, wherein

the input section receives input of owner user information as identification information of a device owner user who owns the content processing device, an electronic mail address of the device owner user, partner user information as identification information of a partner user who shares the content, and an electronic mail address of the partner user;

and causes the sharing user information managing section to manage the received information.

9. The content processing device according to claim 8, further comprising:

a communicating section which communicates with an external device via a network, wherein

the content appropriateness degree calculating section calculates a content appropriateness degree, assuming that the device owner user and the partner user are the sharing users, and

the output control section extracts the content based on the priority determined by the priority determining section, and designates the communicating section to transmit the extracted content to the electronic mail address of the partner user.

10. The content processing device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a communicating section which communicates, via a network, with a server device which provides a content sharing network service with which the content to be posted by a device owner user who owns the content processing device are shared between the prescribed users, and

a relationship information acquiring section which is managed by the content sharing network service, and which acquires, via the communicating section, relationship information specifying a relationship between the prescribed users, and a degree of intimacy between the prescribed users, the degree of intimacy being a digitized value representing intimacy between the prescribed users, wherein

the content appropriateness degree calculating section calculates a content appropriateness degree, assuming that the users included in the relationship information acquired by the relationship information acquiring section are the sharing users, and

the output control section extracts the content to be posted to the content sharing network service, based on the priority determined by the priority determining section, and designates the communicating section to post the extracted content to the content sharing network service.

11. The content processing device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a communicating section which communicates with an external device via a network, and

a current date calculating section which calculates a current date, wherein

the sharing user information managing section manages schedule information of a device owner user who owns the content processing device,

the content appropriateness degree calculating section calculates a content appropriateness degree in the case where a difference between the current date calculated by the current date calculating section and a scheduled date of a schedule registered in the schedule information is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value, assuming that the users associated with the schedule are the sharing users, and

the output control section extracts the content, based on the priority determined by the priority determining section, and designates the communicating section to transmit the extracted content to a mobile terminal of the sharing user.

12. The content processing device according to claim 1, wherein

the content information analyzing section further includes a social information updating section which specifies a relationship between a subject included in the content and a photographing user, based on the subject information and photographing user information for identifying the photographing user who photographed the content, and updates the social information based on the specified relationship.

13. The content processing device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an operation log managing section which manages operation log information in which an operation log with respect to the content, and information for identifying the user who operated the content are correlated with each other; and

a social information updating section which adjusts the degree of intimacy between the user who operated the content and a subject included in the content, based on the operation log information.

14. The content processing device according to claim 12, further comprising:

a communicating section which communicates with an external device via a network, wherein

the social information updating section acquires, via the communicating section, social information to be managed by a social information managing section of another content processing device connected to the network, and updates the social information to be managed by the social information managing section of the content processing device of the own user, based on the acquired social information.

15. A content processing method to be executed by a content processing device for processing at least one or more contents, comprising:

a step of allowing a user to input a content by an input section;

a sharing user information managing step of managing, by a sharing user information managing section, sharing user information relating to at least one or more sharing users who share the content inputted from the input section;

a content information managing step of managing subject information relating to a subject included in the content by a content information managing section;

a social information managing step of managing social information which specifies a relationship between the users, and a degree of intimacy between the users by a social information managing section, the degree of intimacy being a digitized value representing intimacy between the users;

a content appropriateness degree calculating step of extracting a sharing user who does not appear in the subject of the content as an unappearing sharing user, and of calculating a content appropriateness degree by a content appropriateness degree calculating section in such a manner that a value for the content appropriateness degree decreases, as the degree of intimacy between the extracted unappearing sharing user and the subject increases, with use of the subject information and the sharing user information, the content appropriateness degree being a digitized value representing a degree of appropriateness of the content to be shared between the sharing users;

a priority determining step of calculating a content evaluation value with use of the calculated content appropriateness degree, and of determining a priority relating to output of the content based on the calculated content evaluation value by a priority determining section; and

an output control step of controlling the output of the content by an output control section, based on the priority determined by the priority determining section.

16. A computer-readable recording medium which stores a content processing program which causes a computer to function as a content processing device for processing at least one or more contents, the content processing device comprising:

a sharing user information managing section which manages sharing user information relating to at least one or more sharing users who share a content inputted from an input section;

a content information managing section which manages subject information relating to a subject included in the content;

a social information managing section which manages social information which specifies a relationship between the users, and a degree of intimacy between the users, the degree of intimacy being a digitized value representing intimacy between the users;

a content appropriateness degree calculating section which extracts a sharing user who does not appear in the subject of the content as an unappearing sharing user, and which calculates a content appropriateness degree in such a manner that a value for the content appropriateness degree decreases, as the degree of intimacy between the extracted unappearing sharing user and the subject increases, with use of the subject information and the sharing user information, the content appropriateness degree being a digitized value representing a degree of appropriateness of the content to be shared between the sharing users;

a priority determining section which calculates a content evaluation value with use of the calculated content appropriateness degree, and which determines a priority relating to output of the content based on the calculated content evaluation value; and

an output control section which controls the output of the content, based on the priority determined by the priority determining section.

17. An integrated circuit of a content processing device for processing at least one or more contents, comprising:

a sharing user information managing section which manages sharing user information relating to at least one or more sharing users who share a content inputted from an input section;

a content information managing section which manages subject information relating to a subject included in the content;

a social information managing section which manages social information which specifies a relationship between the users, and a degree of intimacy between the users, the degree of intimacy being a digitized value representing intimacy between the users;

a content appropriateness degree calculating section which extracts a sharing user who does not appear in the subject of the content as an unappearing sharing user, and which calculates a content appropriateness degree in such a manner that a value for the content appropriateness degree decreases, as the degree of intimacy between the extracted unappearing sharing user and the subject increases, with use of the subject information and the sharing user information, the content appropriateness degree being a digitized value representing a degree of appropriateness of the content to be shared between the sharing users;

a priority determining section which calculates a content evaluation value with use of the calculated content appropriateness degree, and which determines a priority relating to output of the content based on the calculated content evaluation value; and

an output control section which controls the output of the content, based on the priority determined by the priority determining section.