UNIQUE-TERMINAL-COUNT ESTIMATION DEVICE AND UNIQUE-TERMINAL-COUNT ESTIMATION METHOD

• US 20130176433A1
• Filed: 01/24/2012
• Published: 07/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Terada, Masayuki, Nagata, Tomohiro, Aoyagi, Sadanori, Okajima, Ichiro
• Application Number:
  US13/822,442
• Publication Number:
  US 20130176433A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/143
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5166 in combination with interactive voice response systems or voice portals, e.g. as front-ends
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast

Abstract

A terminal-entry-count estimation device includes: an extraction unit for extracting a terminal estimated to be located in an observation area during at least a part of an observation period, or a piece of location data generated by the terminal in the observation period or in an extended period extended by a predetermined width from the observation period, based on location data which includes identification information to identify each terminal, location information about a location of the terminal, and acquisition time information when the location information is acquired and of which an acquisition time is within the observation period or within the extended period; and a terminal-entry-count estimation unit for estimating a terminal-entry-count in the observation area during the observation period, based on the number of extracted location data or the number of extracted terminals.

Claims

1. A terminal-entry-count estimation device comprising:

an extraction unit for extracting a terminal estimated to be located in an observation area during at least a part of an observation period, or a piece of location data generated by the terminal within the observation period or within an extended period extended by a predetermined width from the observation period, based on location data which includes identification information to identify each terminal, location information about a location of the terminal, and acquisition time information when the location information is acquired and of which an acquisition time is within the observation period or within the extended period; and

a terminal-entry-count estimation unit for estimating a terminal-entry-count in the observation area during the observation period, based on the number of extracted location data or the number of extracted terminals.

2. The terminal-entry-count estimation device according to claim 1, wherein the extraction unit operates as follows:

the extraction unit calculates, for each terminal, an estimated visit duration of a visit of the terminal in the observation area, based on in-area location data of which the acquisition time is within the extended period and of which the location information indicates a location in the observation area, and out-of-area location data which is adjacent to the in-area location data in a chronological arrangement in an order of acquisition times and of which the location information indicates a location out of the observation area, among location data about the same terminal; and

the extraction unit extracts a terminal of which the calculated estimated visit duration overlaps the observation period.

3. The terminal-entry-count estimation device according to claim 2, wherein the extraction unit operates as follows:

the extraction unit calculates, as the estimated visit duration, a period of which a start time is a time corresponding to a proportional division point between an acquisition time of a leading piece of in-area location data in the chronological arrangement and an acquisition time of a piece of out-of-area location data adjacent to the leading piece of in-area location data, and of which an end time is a time corresponding to a proportional division point between an acquisition time of a last piece of in-area location data in the chronological arrangement and an acquisition time of a piece of out-of-area location data adjacent to the last piece of in-area location data.

4. The terminal-entry-count estimation device according to claim 1, wherein the extraction unit operates as follows:

the extraction unit extracts location data with an earliest acquisition time out of the location data of which the acquisition time is within the observation period and of which the location information indicates a location in the observation area, among the location data about the same terminal.

6. The terminal-entry-count estimation device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a total-terminal-entry-count estimation unit for estimating a total-terminal-entry-count that is a cumulative sum along a time axis about the terminal-entry-count in the observation area during the observation period, based on location data of which the acquisition time is within the extended period; and

a first-average-visit-duration calculation unit for calculating an average visit duration in the observation area during the observation period, based on the total-terminal-entry-count and the terminal-entry-count in the observation area during the observation period, obtained by estimation.

7. The terminal-entry-count estimation device according to claim 6, wherein the total-terminal-entry-count estimation unit includes:

a preceding and following location data acquisition unit for, concerning a piece of target location data, acquiring location acquisition time information of location data immediately preceding the target location data, and location acquisition time information of location data immediately following the target location data, from location data including the same identification information as that of the target location data;

a feature amount calculation unit for calculating a feature amount on the target location data, based on at least two of the location acquisition time information of the immediately-preceding location data, the location acquisition time information of the target location data, and the location acquisition time information of the immediately-following location data;

an observation target acquisition unit for acquiring, as observation target location data, one or more pieces of location data including location acquisition time information after an observation start time and before an observation end time about the observation period, and including location information associated with observation area information about the observation area; and

a feature amount totalization unit for totalizing feature amounts on the observation target location data among the location data and estimating the total-terminal-entry-count in the observation area during the observation period, based on a total value of the feature amounts obtained.

8. The terminal-entry-count estimation device according to claim 1, further comprising at least one of:

a number-of-entering-terminals calculation unit for calculating a difference between respective terminal-entry-counts in the observation area in a first observation period and in a second observation period with the same start time, as the number of entering terminals into the observation area in a period between an end time of the first observation period and an end time of the second observation period; and

a number-of-leaving-terminals calculation unit for calculating a difference between respective terminal-entry-counts in the observation area in a third observation period and in a fourth observation period with the same end time, as the number of leaving terminals from the observation area in a period between a start time of the third observation period and a start time of the fourth observation period.

9. The terminal-entry-count estimation device according to claim 8,

wherein, when the terminal-entry-count estimation device comprises both of the number-of-entering-terminals calculation unit and the number-of-leaving-terminals calculation unit, the terminal-entry-count estimation device further comprises a number-of-out/in-terminals calculation unit for calculating a difference obtained by subtracting the number of leaving terminals from the number of entering terminals in the same period, as the number of out/in terminals.

10. The terminal-entry-count estimation device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a scaling factor derivation unit for deriving a scaling factor for converting a terminal-entry-count into a person-entry-count; and

a person-entry-count estimation unit for estimating a person-entry-count in the observation area during the observation period, based on the scaling factor and the terminal-entry-count in the observation area during the observation period.

11. The terminal-entry-count estimation device according to claim 10, further comprising:

a second-average-visit-duration calculation unit for acquiring a total population that is a cumulative sum along a time axis about a population in the observation area during the observation period, based on a demographic change in the observation area during the observation period, and calculating an average visit duration in the observation area during the observation period, based on the total population and the person-entry-count estimated by the person-entry-count estimation unit.

12. The terminal-entry-count estimation device according to claim 10, further comprising at least one of:

a number-of-entering-persons calculation unit for calculating a difference between respective person-entry-counts in the observation area in a fifth observation period and in a sixth observation period with the same start time, as the number of entering persons into the observation area in a period between an end time of the fifth observation period and an end time of the sixth observation period; and

a number-of-leaving-persons calculation unit for calculating a difference between respective person-entry-counts in the observation area in a seventh observation period and in an eighth observation period with the same end time, as the number of leaving persons from the observation area in a period between a start time of the seventh observation period and a start time of the eighth observation period.

13. The terminal-entry-count estimation device according to claim 10, further comprising at least one of:

a number-of-entering-persons calculation unit for calculating a difference between respective terminal-entry-counts in the observation area in a ninth observation period and in a tenth observation period with the same start time, as the number of entering terminals into the observation area in a period between an end time of the ninth observation period and an end time of the tenth observation period, and calculating the number of entering persons into the observation area in the period between the end time of the ninth observation period and the end time of the tenth observation period, based on the scaling factor and the calculated number of entering terminals; and

a number-of-leaving-persons calculation unit for calculating a difference between respective terminal-entry-counts in the observation area in an eleventh observation period and a twelfth observation period with the same end time, as the number of leaving terminals from the observation area in a period between a start time of the eleventh observation period and a start time of the twelfth observation period, and calculating the number of leaving persons from the observation area in the period between the start time of the eleventh observation period and the start time of the twelfth observation period, based on the scaling factor and the calculated number of leaving terminals.

14. The terminal-entry-count estimation device according to claim 12, wherein, when the terminal-entry-count estimation device comprises both of the number-of-entering-persons calculation unit and the number-of-leaving-persons calculation unit, the terminal-entry-count estimation device further comprises a number-of-out/in-persons calculation unit for calculating a difference obtained by subtracting the number of leaving persons from the number of entering persons, as the number of out/in persons.

15. The terminal-entry-count estimation device according to claim 1, the terminal-entry-count estimation device further comprising:

a conversion unit for converting estimated values in respective observation areas obtained in estimation by the terminal-entry-count estimation unit or by the person-entry-count estimation unit, into estimated values in respective output units different from the observation areas, based on area ratios of overlap regions between the output units and the observation areas to the observation areas.

16. The terminal-entry-count estimation device according to claim 15, wherein the conversion unit operates as follows:

when there are at least two communication areas out of a communication area of an indoor station and communication areas of a plurality of outdoor stations using respective frequency bands with different coverage areas, overlapping in a geographically identical observation area, the conversion unit performs conversion into the estimated values in the respective output units based on the area ratios for each of the overlapping communication areas and addition of the estimated values after the conversion for each of the communication areas, thereby obtaining the estimated values in the respective output units.

17. The terminal-entry-count estimation device according to claim 1, wherein the person-entry-count estimation unit estimates person-entry-counts in respective output units and in respective population estimation units, based on terminal-entry-counts obtained in estimation, scaling factors for conversion of the terminal-entry-counts into person-entry-counts, and area ratios of overlap regions between the output units different from observation areas, and the observation areas to the observation areas.

18. The terminal-entry-count estimation device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an output device for outputting the estimated value obtained.

19. The terminal-entry-count estimation device according to claim 18,

wherein an output mode by the output device to be employed is allowed to be at least one of a drawing showing respective distributions of a person-entry-count, the number of entering persons, the number of leaving persons, and the number of out/in persons and a drawing showing chronological changes thereof, and a drawing showing a chronological change of a cumulative sum of person-entry-count;

and

wherein an output unit by the output device is allowed to be set according to at least one of an attribute of a user of a mobile terminal, a time zone, and a place.

20. The terminal-entry-count estimation device according to claim 1, the terminal-entry-count estimation device further comprising:

a location data acquisition unit for acquiring the location data including the identification information to identify each terminal, the location information about the location of the terminal, and the acquisition time information when the location information is acquired; and

an unidentifiability securing unit for performing an unidentifiability securing process including a conversion into irreversible code by a one-way function on the identification information included in the location data acquired by the location data acquisition unit,

wherein the unidentifiability securing unit operates as follows;

when a process using attribute information of a user of a terminal is carried out, prior to the process, the unidentifiability securing unit performs the unidentifiability securing process on the attribute information.

21. The terminal-entry-count estimation device according to claim 1, the terminal-entry-count estimation device further comprising:

a concealment process unit for, before the estimated value obtained is output, performing a concealment process on the estimated value on the basis of a predetermined reference.

22. The terminal-count estimation device according to claim 21,

wherein the concealment process unit operates as follows:

the concealment process unit determines whether or not the number of source terminals indicative of from how many terminals the location data in each area as a basis of estimation of the terminal-entry-count was acquired, is less than a reference value for a determination on whether or not the concealment process is needed, and wherein when the number of source terminals of the location data in a given area is less than the reference value, the concealment process unit conceals the estimated value about the area.

23. The terminal-entry-count estimation device according to claim 22, wherein the concealment process unit operates as follows:

when the number of source terminals of the location data in a given area is not less than the reference value, the concealment process unit rounds the estimated value on the area, based on an upper limit value and a lower limit value of a class to which the estimated value on the area belongs out of a plurality of classes used in output of the estimated value, a class interval, and the estimated value, to the upper limit value and the lower limit value with respective probability values according to a difference from the upper limit value and a difference from the lower limit value.

24. The terminal-entry-count estimation device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an observation period acquisition unit for acquiring observation period information including a set of an observation start time and an observation end time; and

an observation area acquisition unit for acquiring observation area information associated with one or more pieces of location information.

5. A terminal-entry-count estimation device comprising:

an extraction unit for extracting a piece of location data per terminal of which location information indicates a location in an observation area and of which an acquisition time is within an observation period, or a terminal corresponding to the location data, based on location data which includes identification information to identify each terminal, location information about a location of the terminal, and acquisition time information when the location information is acquired and of which an acquisition time is within the observation period or within an extended period extended by a predetermined width from the observation period; and

a terminal-entry-count estimation unit for estimating a terminal-entry-count in the observation area during the observation period, based on the number of extracted location data or the number of extracted terminals.

25. A terminal-entry-count estimation method executed by a terminal-entry-count estimation device, comprising:

an extraction step of extracting a terminal estimated to be located in an observation area during at least a part of an observation period, or a piece of location data generated by the terminal within the observation period or within an extended period extended by a predetermined width from the observation period, based on location data which includes identification information to identify each terminal, location information about a location of the terminal, and acquisition time information when the location information is acquired and of which an acquisition time is within the observation period or within the extended period; and

a terminal-entry-count estimation step of estimating a terminal-entry-count in the observation area during the observation period, based on the number of extracted location data or the number of extracted terminals.

26. A terminal-entry-count estimation method executed by a terminal-entry-count estimation device, comprising:

an extraction step of extracting a piece of location data per terminal of which location information indicates a location in an observation area and of which an acquisition time is within an observation period, or a terminal corresponding to the location data, based on location data which includes identification information to identify each terminal, location information about a location of the terminal, and acquisition time information when the location information is acquired and of which an acquisition time is within the observation period or within an extended period extended by a predetermined width from the observation period; and

a terminal-entry-count estimation step of estimating a terminal-entry-count in the observation area during the observation period, based on the number of extracted location data or the number of extracted terminals.