Experience/sympathy information providing system

• US 6,782,409 B1
• Filed: 01/21/2000
• Issued: 08/24/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Yoshida, Kimiyoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Dharia, Rupal
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pollack, Melvin H.
• Application Number:
  US09/463,425
• Time in Patent Office: 1,677 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/203, 709/217, 709/219, 709/202, 709/226, 705/10, 705/27, 705/14, 707/6, 707/104.1, 707/70, 707/10, 718/100
• US Class Current: 709/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99937 Sorting

Abstract

Upon receiving a request for preparing a recommended CD list in Step S71, the experience/sympathy information providing server stores the member ID of the user requested a recommended CD list as remarkable member in Step S72. Then, in Step S73, the experience/sympathy information providing server extracts members having a taste similar to that of the remarkable member as sympathizers (members who like CDs (music) similar to those the remarkable member likes). In Step S74, the experience/sympathy information providing server prepare a synthetic experience/sympathy list by collecting experience/sympathy element data of the sympathizers. In Step S75; the experience/sympathy information providing server 14 prepares a recommended experience (CD) list best adapted to the user from the synthetic experience/sympathy list and transmits it to the terminal unit of the remarkable member.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus for selecting services to be provided to individual subscribers by way of a plurality of terminal units connected to the apparatus, said apparatus comprising:

memory means for storing personal information lists containing personal information including experiences on the services;

personal information extraction means for comparing the experience information contained in a remarkable piece of personal information and the experience information contained in each of the pieces of personal information contained in said personal information lists and extracting the pieces of personal information strongly related to said remarkable piece of personal information in accordance with a predetermined ambiguity in said remarkable piece of personal information; and

selection means for selecting services to be provided to the terminal unit corresponding to said remarkable piece of personal information on the basis of the pieces of personal information extracted by said personal information extraction means.

2. An information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising service providing means for providing a service selected by said selection means to said terminal unit corresponding said remarkable personal information.

3. An information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said service providing means provides the service selected by said selection means to said terminal unit by way of network.

4. An information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said experience information includes category information indicating the category of said service.

5. An information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said selection means selects service on the commonness of the category information included in said remarkable personal information and the category information included in said personal information extracted by said personal information extraction means.

6. An information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said experience information include category information indicating the category of said service and preference level information indicating the preference level for the service category indicated by said category information.

7. An information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said selection means selects service on the basis of agreement between the category information included in said remarkable personal information and the category information included in said personal information extracted by said personal information extraction means and the portion of preference information showing agreement between the preference information included in said remarkable personal information and the sympathy preference information included in said personal information extracted by said personal information extraction means.

8. An information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising personal information receiving means for receiving personal information transmitted from said plurality of terminal units.

9. An information processing apparatus according to to claim 1, further comprising synthetic personal information generation means for synthetically combining a plurality of pieces of personal information extracted by said personal information extracting means and generating synthetic personal information,

wherein said selection means selects service to be provided to the terminal unit corresponding to said remarkable piece of personal information on the basis of said synthetic personal information.

10. An information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said memory means being provided for each of a plurality of categories and having a plurality of memory sections for storing personal information lists for the respective categories and said personal information extraction means is adapted to extract personal information strongly related to said remarkable personal information on the basis of a plurality of pieces of information stored in one of said plurality of memory sections, while said selection means selects a plurality of pieces of personal information stored in another one of said plurality of memory sections different from the one utilized by said personal information extraction means and then also selects service on the basis of the selected personal information.

11. An information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said selection means includes service extraction means for extracting one or more than one services on the basis of the personal information extracted by said personal information extraction means and restriction means for restricting the services to a predetermined number when said service extraction means extracts services more than said predetermined number.

15. An information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said personal information extraction means extracts said pieces of personal information that is strongly related to said remarkable piece of personal information in accordance with predetermined ambiguity in said pieces of personal information.

12. An information processing method for selecting services to be provided to individual subscribers by way of a plurality of terminal units connected to the apparatus, said method comprising steps of:

storing personal information lists containing personal information including experiences on services;

comparing the experience information contained in a remarkable piece of personal information and the experience information contained in each of the pieces of personal information contained in said personal information lists and extracting the pieces of personal information strongly related to said remarkable piece of personal information in accordance with a predetermined ambiguity in said remarkable piece of peisonal information; and

selecting services to be provided to the terminal unit corresponding to said remarkable piece of personal information on the basis of the pieces of personal information extracted in said step of extracting personal information.

13. An information processing system comprising a plurality of terminal units and an information processing apparatus for providing service information to said plurality of terminal units, each of said terminal units having:

input means for inputting experience information relating to said service information and request information requesting service information to said information processing apparatus;

first communication means for transmitting said experience information and said request information to said information processing apparatus and receiving said service information from said information processing apparatus by way of a network; and

display means for displaying the service information received by said first communication means;

said information processing means having;

second communication means for receiving experience information and request information from said information processing apparatus and transmitting service information to said plurality of terminal units;

memory means for storing a personal information list containing personal information on a plurality of individuals including said service information transmitted from said first communication means of said plurality of terminal units and received by said second communication means;

remarkable personal information extraction means for extracting experience information contained in remarkable personal information relating to said terminal unit used for transmitting said request information from said memory means;

related personal information extraction means for extracting personal information strongly related within a predetermined ambiguity, to said remarkable personal information from each pieces of personal information contained in said personal information list by comparing said experience information contained in said remarkable personal information with experience information contained in each pieces of personal information contained in the personal information list stored in said memory means;

said predetermined ambiguity being, in ambiguity in said remarkable piece of personal information; and

selection means for selecting said service information for the terminal unit corresponding to said remarkable personal information on the basis of the personal information extracted by said related personal information extraction means;

said second communication means being adapted to transmit said service information selected by said selection means to said terminal unit used to transmit said request information by way of said network.

14. A recording medium storing an information processing program adapted to be read by a computer for selecting services to be provided to a plurality of terminal units;

said information processing program being for use for each of the individuals using said plurality of terminal units and adapted to carry out a processing operation comprising steps of;

storing personal information lists containing personal information including experiences on services;

comparing the experience information contained in a remarkable piece of personal information and the experience information contained in each of the pieces of personal information contained in said personal information lists and extracting the pieces of personal information strongly related to said remarkable piece of personal information;

within a predetermined ambiguity in said remarkable piece of personal information; and

selecting services to be provided to the terminal unit corresponding to said remarkable piece of personal information on the basis of the pieces of personal information extracted in said step of extracting personal information.

16. An information processing apparatus for providing a recommendation of an experience item to a terminal comprising:

receiving means for receiving a preference level of said experience item input on said terminal;

memory means for storing said preference level in accordance with said experience item;

evaluate means for evaluating an ambiguity of said preference level by calculating a difference of said preference level from a predetermined level,

extract means for extracting said experience item stored in said memory means based upon a result from said evaluate means; and

sending means for sending said experience item extracted by extract means to said terminal.