INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS, COMMUNICATION SYSTEM, AND INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD

• US 20140024399A1
• Filed: 07/10/2013
• Published: 01/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Shimo, Norio, Tsuda, Shinichiro
• Granted Patent: US 9,066,315 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/457
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/18 Network planning tools
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination

Abstract

An information processing apparatus includes a receiver configured to receive designation information corresponding to a user operation for designating an area for which an index indicating a degree of human congestion is to be displayed and a controller configured to perform control to provide a degree of communication traffic in the area as the index for the area.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus comprising:

a receiver configured to receive designation information corresponding to a user operation for designating an area for which an index indicating a degree of human congestion is to be displayed; and

a controller configured to perform control to provide a degree of communication traffic in the area as the index for the area.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the receiver receives the designation information regarding the area determined by a designation operation by which a user designates a position and a range on a map displayed on a display of a wireless communication apparatus, and

the information processing apparatus further comprises a determiner configured to extract at least one base station located in the area and determine the degree of communication-traffic congestion in the area on the basis of a communication-traffic congestion degree regarding the extracted base station.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the determiner uses a communication-traffic congestion degree obtained by at least one wireless communication apparatus present in the area as the communication-traffic congestion degree regarding the extracted base station.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the determiner determines the degree of communication-traffic congestion in the area by averaging the communication-traffic congestion degrees obtained by the at least one wireless communication apparatus present in the area.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the determiner aggregates, at predetermined intervals, the communication-traffic congestion degrees obtained by the at least one wireless communication apparatus present in the area, to determine at least one of a degree of current communication-traffic congestion in the area and a degree of communication-traffic congestion in the past in the area.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the determiner determines a ratio of the degree of current communication-traffic congestion in the area to the degree of communication-traffic congestion in the past in the area as the index for the area.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the determiner determines a ratio of the degree of communication-traffic congestion at one time point in the past in the area to the degree of communication-traffic congestion at another time point in the past in the area as the index for the area.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the designation information includes date-and-time information, and

the controller performs control to provide, as the index for the area, the degree of communication-traffic congestion in the area in a period specified by the date-and-time information.

9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller performs control to cause at least one of the degree of communication-traffic congestion in the area and a sign indicating the degree of communication-traffic congestion to be displayed on a display as the index for the area.

10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the controller performs control to cause at least one of the degree of communication-traffic congestion in the area and a sign indicating the degree of communication-traffic congestion to be displayed on the display in association with a map including the area.

11. The information processing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the controller performs control to cause at least one of the degree of communication-traffic congestion in the area and a sign indicating the degree of communication-traffic congestion to be displayed on the display in a superimposed manner on the map.

12. A communication system comprising:

a wireless communication apparatus configured to transmit, on the basis of a user operation for designating an area for which an index indicating a degree of human congestion is to be displayed, designation information regarding the area to an information processing apparatus; and

an information processing apparatus that includes

a receiver that receives the designation information, and

a controller that performs control to cause the wireless communication apparatus to display a degree of communication-traffic congestion in the area as the index for the area.

13. An information processing method comprising:

receiving designation information corresponding to a user operation for designating an area for which an index indicating a degree of human congestion is to be displayed; and

performing control to provide a degree of communication traffic in the area as the index for the area.