Contents presenting system and method

• US 7,177,809 B2
• Filed: 06/10/2002
• Issued: 02/13/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Pioneer Corporation
• Original Assignee: Pioneer Corporation
• Inventors: Shioda, Takehiko, Toyama, Soichi, Yamauchi, Keiichi, Shibasaki, Hiroaki, Amano, Hideki
• Primary Examiner(s): Armstrong; Angela
• Application Number:
  US10/164,600
• Publication Number:
  US 20020188455A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,709 Days
• Field of Search: 704/275, 704205-207, 704/231, 704/251, 704/270, 704/200
• US Class Current: 704/251
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/26 Recognition of special voice characteristics, e.g. for use in lie detectors; Recognition of animal voices

Abstract

A contents presenting system includes: an analyzing unit which collects and analyzes user'"'"'s conversation to output an analysis result; a contents acquiring unit which acquires contents from a contents database based on the analysis result; and a contents presenting unit which presents the acquired contents to the user. Since the analysis result of user'"'"'s conversation includes a factor representing the environment where the user is talking, by determining contents based on the analysis result, it is possible to provide the contents which is suited for the environment where the user is present.

Claims

1. A contents presenting system comprising:

an analyzing unit which collects user'"'"'s conversation, analyzes a sound volume and a frequency of the user'"'"'s conversation to judge an atmosphere of an environment where the user is talking, and outputs the atmosphere as an analysis result;

a contents acquiring unit which acquires contents from a contents database based on the analysis result; and

a contents presenting unit which presents the acquired contents to the user, wherein the analyzing unit judges that the atmosphere is a first atmosphere when the sound volume is not smaller than a reference sound volume value and the frequency is not smaller than a reference frequency value and judges that the atmosphere is a second atmosphere when the sound volume is smaller than the reference sound volume value and the frequency is smaller than the reference frequency value, and

when the judged atmosphere is the first atmosphere, the contents acquiring unit acquires no content for presentation or acquires content which is representative of the first atmosphere.

2. The contents presenting system according to claim 1, wherein the analyzing unit further analyzes contents of the use'"'"'s conversation to judge the atmosphere of the environment where the user is talking.

3. The contents presenting system according to claim 1, wherein the analyzing unit analyzes contents of the user'"'"'s conversation to output the analysis result.

4. The contents presenting system according to claim 3, wherein the analyzing unit comprises:

a word database which stores correspondences between words and genres corresponding to the words;

an accumulating unit which acquires genres of words in the user'"'"'s conversation by looking up the word database, and accumulates the words and the genres; and

an analysis result outputting unit which outputs, as the analysis result, at least one of the word and the genre which are large in number of accumulation among the words and the genres accumulated by the accumulating unit.

5. The contents presenting system according to claim 4, wherein the analysis result outputting unit outputs, as the analysis result, a word and/or a genre which are/is the largest in number of accumulation among the words and the genres accumulated by the accumulating unit.

6. The contents presenting system according to claim 1, further comprising an environment controlling unit which controls an external factor that influences on the environment where the user is talking.

7. The contents presenting system according to claim 6, wherein the environment controlling unit reduces or eliminates external sounds getting into the environment where the user is talking.

8. The contents presenting system according to claim 1, wherein the contents acquiring unit acquires the contents from the contents database in the contents presenting system.

9. The contents presenting system according to claim 1, wherein the contents acquiring unit acquires the contents by way of communication from the contents database in an external server.

10. The contents presenting system according to claim 1, wherein the contents includes at least one of music information, video information, electronic text information and browsing information published at a Web site on the Internet.

11. A contents presenting method comprising the steps of:

collecting user'"'"'s conversation to output an analysis result, analyzing a sound volume and a frequency of the user'"'"'s conversation to judge an atmosphere of an environment where the user is talking, and outputting the atmosphere as an analysis result;

acquiring contents from a contents database based on the analysis result; and

presenting the acquired contents to the user, wherein the analyzing step judges that the atmosphere is a first atmosphere when the sound volume is not smaller than a reference sound volume value and the frequency is not smaller than a reference frequency value and judges that the atmosphere is a second atmosphere when the sound volume is smaller than the reference sound volume value and the frequency is smaller than the reference frequency value, and

when the judged atmosphere is the first atmosphere, the acquiring step acquires no content for presentation or acquires content which is representative of the first atmosphere.

12. A program storage device readable by a computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the computer to control the computer to function as a contents presenting system comprising:

an analyzing unit which collects user'"'"'s conversation to output an analysis result, analyzes a sound volume and a frequency of the user'"'"'s conversation to judge an atmosphere of an environment where the user is talking, and outputs the atmosphere as an analysis result;

a contents acquiring unit which acquires contents from a contents database based on the analysis result; and

a contents presenting unit which presents the acquired contents to the user, wherein the analyzing unit judges that the atmosphere is a first atmosphere when the sound volume is not smaller than a reference sound volume value and the frequency is not smaller than a reference frequency value and judges that the atmosphere is a second atmosphere when the sound volume is smaller than the reference sound volume value and the frequency is smaller than the reference frequency value, and

when the judged atmosphere is the first atmosphere, the contents acquiring unit acquires no content or acquires content which is representative of the first atmosphere.