INFORMATION NOTIFICATION METHOD, INFORMATION NOTIFICATION SYSTEM, AND SERVER DEVICE

• US 20150046580A1
• Filed: 09/25/2013
• Published: 02/12/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2012
• 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: Sasagawa, Michiko, Ohmori, Motoji, Unagami, Yuji, Umetani, Hideo, Isogai, Kazunori
• Granted Patent: US 10,454,800 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route

Abstract

An information notification method for providing information from a server device to a plurality of devices connected to a network, including: reading notification information stored in association with information indicating a particular action of a user; acquiring operation histories of the plurality of devices; estimating, based on operation histories of one or more devices owned by the user among the plurality of devices, a no-operation period during which the user is unlikely to operate the one or more devices; determining, based on current operation state of the one or more devices, whether the particular action has been performed outside the no-operation period; and transmitting, when outcome of the determining is affirmative, the notification information associated with the particular action to a destination device among the one or more devices owned by the user. The destination device provides the user with the notification information.

Claims

1. An information notification method for providing information from a server device to a plurality of devices connected to a network, comprising:

a reading step of reading notification information that is stored in association with information indicating a particular action of a user;

an acquiring step of acquiring operation histories of the plurality of devices;

an estimating step of estimating, based on operation histories of one or more devices owned by the user among the plurality of devices, a no-operation period during which the user is unlikely to operate the one or more devices;

a determining step of determining, based on current operation state of the one or more devices, whether the particular action has been performed outside the no-operation period; and

a transmitting step of, when outcome of the determining step is affirmative, transmitting the notification information associated with the particular action to a destination device among the one or more devices owned by the user, wherein

the destination device, receiving the notification information, provides the user with the notification information.

2. The information notification method of claim 1 further comprising:

a selecting step of selecting, based on current operation state of the one or more devices owned by the user, at least one device as the destination device of the notification information from among the one or more devices owned by the user, wherein

the operation histories of the one or more devices owned by the user contain information indicating a power-on period of each of the one or more devices owned by the user, the power-on period of a device being a period during which the device was in power-on state in each day,

the particular action is use of at least one particular device from among the one or more devices owned by the user,

in the estimating step, an action period is estimated based on the information indicating the power-on period, the action period being a period during which the user is likely to perform the particular action,

in the determining step, the particular action is determined to have been performed within the action period when power status of the at least one particular device is determined to have been changed within the action period, and

in the transmitting step, the notification information is transmitted to the at least one device selected as the destination device in the selecting step when the particular action is determined to have been performed within the action period.

3. The information notification method of claim 2, wherein

in the determining step, the particular action is determined to have been performed within the action period when the at least one particular device has been switched from power-off state to powered-on state within the action period, and

in the selecting step, the at least one device switched to power-on state is selected as the destination of the notification information.

4. The information notification method of claim 2, wherein

in the determining step, the particular action is determined to have been performed within the action period when a device among the at least one particular device is switched from power-on state to power-off state at any point within the action period and all of the at least one particular device has been switched to power-off state at the point,

in the selecting step, the at least one device switched to power-off state is selected as the destination device of the notification information, and

in the transmitting step, the notification information is transmitted to the at least one device selected as the destination device in the selecting step when the at least one device selected as the destination device is switched to power-on state.

5. The information notification method of claim 2, wherein

the one or more devices owned by the user include a portable information terminal device that is not the at least one particular device,

in the determining step, the particular action is determined to have been performed within the action period when a device among the at least one particular device is switched from power-on state to power-off state at any point within the action period and all of the at least one particular device has been switched to power-off state at the point,

in the selecting step, the portable information terminal device is selected as the destination device of the notification information, and

in the transmitting step, the notification information is transmitted to the portable information terminal device.

6. The information notification method of claim 5, wherein

the portable information terminal device includes a positioning unit using a satellite positioning system,

the information notification method further comprises

a position acquiring step of sequentially acquiring positional information of the portable information terminal device from the positioning unit, and

in the transmitting step, the notification information is transmitted to the portable information terminal device when the portable information terminal device enters a predetermined area from outside thereof.

7. The information notification method of claim 2, wherein

in the selecting step, one or more devices other than the at least one particular device are selected from among the one or more devices owned by the user, and

in the transmitting step, the notification information is transmitted to, among the one or more devices selected in the selecting step, a device that is in power-on state.

8. The information notification method of claim 2 further comprising

a notification device information reading step of reading notification device information stored in association with the particular action, the notification device information specifying one or more devices as candidates for the destination device of the notification information, wherein

in the selecting step, a device that is in power-on state is selected as the destination device of the notification information from among the one or more devices specified by the notification device information.

9. The information notification method of claim 8 further comprising

a destination device information reading step of reading destination device information stored in association with the notification information, the destination device information specifying a condition for type of the destination device and a condition for a range relating to the destination device, wherein

in the selecting step, the destination device is selected based on the destination device information.

10. The information notification method of claim 9, wherein

the range relating to the destination device is a time range specifying a usage period for which the device has been used, and

in the selecting step, the usage period of each of the one or more devices owned by the user is specified based on the operation histories, and a device that satisfies the condition for the range is selected as the destination device.

11. The information notification method of claim 9 further comprising

a positional information reading step of reading positional information of each of the plurality of devices, wherein

the range relating to the destination device is a positional range of the destination device, and

in the selecting step, a device that satisfies the condition for the range is selected as the destination device from among the one or more devices owned by the user.

12. The information notification method of claim 1, wherein

at least one of the one or more devices owned by the user is an information search terminal device,

the information search terminal device includes a keyword input unit receiving a keyword input by the user,

the operation histories of the plurality of devices contain the keyword,

the particular action of the user is to input an instruction relating to the keyword into the at least one of the one or more devices owned by the user,

in the determining step, the particular action is determined to have been performed when the information search terminal device is determined to have operated according to the instruction relating to the keyword, and

in the selecting step, the information search terminal device is selected as the destination device of the notification information.

13. The information notification method of claim 1, wherein

the one or more devices owned by the user include a device including a feedback information input unit receiving feedback information from the user,

the information notification method further comprises:

a feedback information acquiring step of acquiring the feedback information from the device including the feedback information input unit;

a function information reading step of reading function information used for enabling one of the one or more devices owned by the user to perform a particular function based on the feedback information; and

an instructing step of issuing an instruction to enable the one of the one or more devices owned by the user to perform the particular function when the feedback information satisfies a predetermined condition.

14. An information notification system for providing information from a server device to a plurality of devices connected to a network,

the server device comprising:

a storage unit storing notification information in association with information indicating a particular action of a user;

a reading unit reading the notification information stored in association with the information indicating the particular action of the user;

an acquisition unit acquiring operation histories of the plurality of devices;

an estimation unit estimating, based on operation histories of one or more devices owned by the user among the plurality of devices, a no-operation period during which the user is unlikely to operate the one or more devices;

a determination unit determining, based on current operation state of the one or more devices, whether the particular action has been performed outside the no-operation period; and

a transmission unit, when outcome of the determining step is affirmative, transmitting notification information associated with the particular action to a destination device among the one or more devices owned by the user, and

each of the plurality of devices comprising;

a history information transmission unit transmitting operation histories of the device to the server device;

a receiving unit receiving the notification information from the server device; and

a notification unit providing the user with the notification information.

15. A server device for providing information to a plurality of devices connected to a network, comprising:

a storage unit storing notification information in association with information indicating a particular action of a user;

a reading unit reading the notification information stored in association with the information indicating the particular action of the user;

an acquisition unit acquiring operation histories of the plurality of devices;

an estimation unit estimating, based on operation histories of one or more devices owned by the user among the plurality of devices, a no-operation period during which the user is unlikely to operate the one or more devices;

a determination unit determining, based on current operation state of the one or more devices, whether the particular action has been performed outside the no-operation period; and

a transmission unit, when outcome of the determining step is affirmative, transmitting the notification information associated with the particular action to a destination device among the one or more devices owned by the user.