INFORMATION PRESENTING APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD THEREFOR

• US 20170102765A1
• Filed: 09/27/2016
• Published: 04/13/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2015
• 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: YONEDA, AKI, KUSUKAME, KOICHI, SHIKII, SHINICHI, SILAWAN, NAWATT, UCHIDA, SHINJI, ITOH, TATSUO
• Granted Patent: US 10,691,197 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3484 Personalized, e.g. from learned user behaviour or user-defined profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/011 Emotion or mood input determined on the basis of sensed human body parameters such as pulse, heart rate or beat, temperature of skin, facial expressions, iris, voice pitch, brain activity patterns
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0304 Detection arrangements using opto-electronic means constructional details of pointing devices not related to the detection arrangement using opto-electronic means G06F3/033; optical digitisers G06F3/042
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/16 Sound input; Sound output speech processing G10L
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/174 Facial expression recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/30 Writer recognition; Reading and verifying signatures

Abstract

A control method for an information presenting apparatus includes: estimating an emotion felt by a user, based on a physical quantity acquired by a sensor; generating identification information that identifies a cause that causes the user to feel the estimated emotion, based on the physical quantity acquired by the sensor or information that a presenter included in the information presenting apparatus presents to the user; and controlling presentation performed by the information presenting apparatus, by using information obtained by executing predetermined processing using the estimated emotion and the generated identification information.

Claims

1. A control method for an information presenting apparatus, the method comprising:

estimating an emotion felt by a user, based on a physical quantity acquired by a sensor;

generating identification information that identifies a cause that causes the user to feel the estimated emotion, based on the physical quantity acquired by the sensor or information that a presenter included in the information presenting apparatus presents to the user; and

controlling presentation performed by the information presenting apparatus, by using information obtained by executing predetermined processing using the estimated emotion and the generated identification information.

2. The control method according to claim 1,

wherein in the executing of the predetermined processing, the information is obtained by executing selection processing for selecting one piece of information from a table in which one or more sets, each including an emotion felt by a person and a cause that causes the person to feel the emotion, are associated with respective pieces of candidate information or by executing generation processing for generating information through use of an emotion felt by the user and the cause that causes the user to feel the emotion.

3. The control method according to claim 1,

wherein the emotion includes a positive emotion and a negative emotion;

in the executing of the predetermined processing,

presentation information to be presented to the user in order to eliminate the cause is obtained when the estimated emotion is a negative emotion, and

presentation information to be presented to the user in order to maintain the emotion is obtained when the estimated emotion is a positive emotion; and

in the controlling of the presentation, the obtained presentation information is presented by the information presenting apparatus.

4. The control method according to claim 1,

wherein the information presenting apparatus comprises a vehicle navigation apparatus;

the navigation apparatus has a memory storing a table in which one or more sets, each including an emotion felt by a person and information indicating a direction of line-of-sight of the person, are associated with respective pieces of control information regarding road navigation or sound output performed by the navigation apparatus;

in the generating of the identification information,

the identification information is generated based on information that is obtained from an image acquired by a camera serving as the sensor and that indicates a direction of line-of-sight of the user, the physical quantity being provided by the image;

in the executing of the predetermined processing,

the information is obtained by selecting the control information associated in the table with a set of the estimated emotion and the cause identified with the generated identification information; and

in the controlling of the presentation,

road navigation or sound output performed by the navigation apparatus are controlled in accordance with the selected control information.

5. The control method according to claim 4,

wherein in the table, the control information for the navigation apparatus is associated with sets, each including the emotion felt by the person, the information indicating the direction of the line-of-sight of the person, and information regarding a road situation acquired by the navigation apparatus;

and

in the predetermined processing,

the navigation apparatus obtains road information regarding the road situation, and

the control information is obtained by selecting the control information associated in the table with the set of the estimated emotion, the cause identified with the generated identification information, and the obtained road information.

6. The control method according to claim 1,

wherein the cause comprises one of a quality of a product and a price of the product;

in the generating of the identification information,

the identification information is generated based on whether the product lies on an extension of line-of-sight of the user or a price indication for the product lies on an extension of the line-of-sight of the user and indicates at least one of the quality and the price, the line-of-sight being obtained from an image acquired by a camera serving as the sensor, and the physical quantity being provided by the image;

in the executing of the predetermined processing,

the information is obtained by generating presentation information for prompting the user to take a purchasing action, based on the estimated emotion and the generated identification information; and

in the controlling of the presentation,

the generated presentation information is presented.

7. The control method according to claim 6,

wherein in the estimating of the emotion and in the generating of the identification information,

(a) a degree of satisfaction felt by the user about the quality that is the cause is estimated as the emotion, and information indicating the quality is generated as the identification information, and

(b) a degree of satisfaction felt by the user about the price that is the cause is estimated as the emotion, and information indicating the price is generated as the identification information;

and

in the executing of the predetermined processing,

based on the emotions estimated in (a) and (b) and the generated identification information, presentation information to be presented to the user in order to prompt the user'"'"'s purchasing action is generated.

8. The control method according to claim 1,

wherein the cause is any of the first foods;

in the estimating of the emotion,

a degree of fondness felt by the user about each of the first foods is estimated as the emotion;

in the generating of the identification information,

information that is obtained from an image acquired by a camera serving as the sensor and that indicates which of the first foods the user brought to his or her mouth, the physical quantity being provided by the image, is generated as the identification information;

in the executing of the predetermined processing,

the information is obtained by generating presentation information including, with higher priority, a second food having an attribute that is close to preference of the user, the preference being determined based on a degree of fondness felt by the user, the second food being included in a plurality of second foods that are candidates of a food to be served to the user; and

in the controlling of the presentation,

the generated presentation information is presented.

9. The control method according to claim 8,

wherein the information presenting apparatus has a memory in which attribute values of respective attributes of each of the first foods are stored;

and

in the executing of the predetermined processing,

a preference vector whose components are the user'"'"'s preferences for the respective attributes of each of the first foods is derived based on a degree of fondness felt by the user about each of the first foods, and

the presentation information includes, with higher priority, the second food that is included in the plurality of second foods and for which a value of inner product between the preference vector and an attribute vector whose components are attribute values of respective attributes of each of the second foods is small.

10. The control method according to claim 1,

wherein the cause is speech data using one language, the speech data being presented to the user by the presenter through speech output;

in the estimating of the emotion,

a degree of understanding indicated by the user about the speech data presented by the presenter is estimated as the emotion;

in the generating of the identification information,

information that identifies the speech data presented by the presenter is generated as the identification information;

in the executing of the predetermined processing,

when the estimated degree of understanding is smaller than a predetermined degree, speech data using a language different from the one language is obtained; and

in the controlling of the presentation,

the obtained speech data is presented by the presenter through speech output.

11. The control method according to claim 10,

wherein the information presenting apparatus has a memory in which pieces of speech guidance data, each piece using one language, are stored;

and

in the executing of the predetermined processing,

(a) when the estimated degree of understanding is smaller than a predetermined degree, a piece of speech guidance data using a language different from the one language of the speech guidance data presented by the presenter is selected and obtained, the piece of speech guidance data being included in the pieces of speech guidance data stored in the memory, and

(b) when the estimated degree of understanding is larger than or equal to the predetermined degree, it is determined that the one language presented by the presenter is a language the user can understand.

12. An information presenting apparatus comprising:

an emotion estimator that estimates an emotion felt by a user, based on a physical quantity acquired by a sensor;

a cause identifier that generates identification information that identifies a cause that causes the user to feel the estimated emotion, based on the physical quantity acquired by the sensor and information presented to the user by the information presenting apparatus; and

a controller that controls presentation performed by the information presenting apparatus, by using information obtained by executing predetermined processing using the estimated emotion and the generated identification information.