Communication server, communication method, memory medium and integrated circuit for mediating requests for content delivery according to expectation values of a probability of acceptance of the request, desired location, and history information

• US 8,874,474 B2
• Filed: 03/07/2012
• Issued: 10/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sovereign Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Wakai, Ryohei, Fujita, Takahisa, Kawamura, Yuzo
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN BA, HOANG VU A
• Application Number:
  US13/979,238
• Publication Number:
  US 20130298150A1
• Time in Patent Office: 965 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26.1, 705/26.2, 705/26.3, 705/26.4, 705/26.9, 705/27.1, 705/346, 709/217, 709/205, 348/E7.083, 725/9, 725/16
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/123 Shopping for digital content
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3224 Transactions dependent on location of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0605 Supply or demand aggregation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0639 Item locations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2007/17372 the upstream transmission being initiated or timed by a signal from upstream of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23109 by placing content in organized collections, e.g. EPG data repository details of retrieval of video data and associated meta data in video databases G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25866 Management of end-user data customer care in data networks H04L41/5077
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2747 Remote storage of video programs received via the downstream path, e.g. from the server
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6371 directed to network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/022 with dynamic range variability

Abstract

A communication server 200 acquires a request specifying a desired location for content creation from a requester terminal 310, and provides a notification of the request to an accepter terminal 300 accepting the content creation. The notification history managing unit 206 stores, as notification history, the distance from an accepter terminal to be provided with the notification to the desired recoding location and acceptance information. Upon acquisition of a new request, a request notification terminal selecting unit 203 selects a accepter terminal 300 that is likely to accept the request according to the notification history, and the request notifying unit 204 provides the selected accepter terminal 300 with the notification.

Claims

1. A communication server comprising:

a request acquiring unit that acquires a request for content creation with specification of a desired location for the content creation;

a terminal location acquiring unit that acquires locations of a plurality of accepter terminals each capable of performing the content creation;

a notifying unit that provides a notification of the request to an accepter terminal selected from among the plurality of accepter terminals;

an acceptance information acquiring unit that acquires acceptance information showing whether or not the selected accepter terminal provided with the notification of the request has accepted the request;

a history managing unit that manages history information showing a history of notifications provided to each of the plurality of accepter terminals by the notifying unit in the past, the history information containing for each notification;

a location at the time of provision of the notification, of an accepter terminal provided with the notification;

a desired location specified in a corresponding request; and

the acceptance information; and

a selecting unit that, upon acquisition of a new request, selects an accepter terminal to which the notifying unit provides a notification of the new request, according to;

the locations of the plurality of accepter terminals;

a desired location specified in the new request; and

the history information, wherein

upon the acquisition of the new request, the selecting unit calculates expectation values showing a probability of accepting the new request for each of the plurality of accepter terminals by using;

the locations of the plurality of accepter terminals;

the desired location specified in the new request; and

the history information, and selects the accepter terminal to which the notifying unit provides the notification of the new request, according to the expectation value.

2. The communication server of claim 1, wherein

when a distance between the desired location and a location of the accepter terminal at the time of acquisition of the new request is defined as a current distance, and a distance between two locations of the accepter terminal contained in the history information is defined as a notification distance,

the selecting unit calculates a distance tendency value with respect to notifications provided to each of the plurality of accepter terminals in the past, by using the current distance and the notification distance of each of the plurality of accepter terminals, and sets the distance tendency value as the expectation value, the distance tendency value showing a request acceptance rate of the corresponding accepter terminal when the notification distance is an approximation of the current distance.

3. The communication server of claim 2, wherein

the history information further includes time of each notification, and

the selecting unit calculates a time tendency value with respect to the notifications provided to each of the plurality of accepter terminals in the past, and calculates the expectation value by using the distance tendency value and the time tendency value, the time tendency value showing a request acceptance rate of the corresponding accepter terminal when a time attribute of the new request is the same as current time.

4. The communication server of claim 2, wherein

when a location of the accepter terminal at the time of acquisition of the new request is defined as a current location, and locations of the plurality of accepter terminal at the time of provision of the notifications contained in the history information are defined as notification locations,

the selecting unit calculates a location tendency value with respect to the notifications provided to each of the plurality of accepter terminals in the past, by using the current location and the notification location of each of the plurality of accepter terminals, and calculates the expectation value by using the distance tendency value and the location tendency value, the location tendency value showing a request acceptance rate of the corresponding accepter terminal when the notification location corresponding to the new request is within a predetermined range of the current location.

5. The communication server of claim 2, wherein

the selecting unit corrects the distance tendency value according to the current distance, and sets the distance tendency value after the correction as the expectation value.

6. The communication server of claim 2 further comprising:

a location category information managing unit that manages location category information associating locations and categories with each other, wherein

when a category corresponding to the desired location in the history information is defined as a notification category, and a category corresponding to the desired location specified in the new request is defined as a current category,

the selecting unit calculates a category tendency value with respect to the notifications provided to each of the plurality of accepter terminals in the past, and calculates the expectation value by using the distance tendency value and the category tendency value, the category tendency value showing a request acceptance rate of the corresponding accepter terminal when the notification category corresponding to the new request is the same as the current category.

7. The communication server of claim 1, wherein

the history information further includes user identifiers for identifying users of accepter terminals provided with the notifications, and

upon the acquisition of the new request, the selecting unit calculates an expectation value showing a probability of accepting the new request for each of the users of the plurality of accepter terminals by using:

the locations of the plurality of accepter terminals at the time of the acquisition of the new request;

the desired location specified in the new request; and

the history information, and selects the accepter terminal, to which the notifying unit provides the notification of the new request, according to the expectation value.

8. The communication server of claim 1, wherein

the history information contains, for each notification, a notification distance of each of the accepter terminals instead of the notification location and the desired location, the notification distance showing a distance from the notification location to the desired location.

9. A communication method comprising:

a request acquiring step of acquiring a request for content creation with specification of a desired location for the content creation;

a terminal location acquiring step of acquiring locations of a plurality of accepter terminals each capable of performing the content creation;

a notifying step of providing a notification of the request to an accepter terminal selected from among the accepter terminals;

an acceptance information acquiring step of acquiring acceptance information showing whether or not the selected accepter terminal provided with the notification of the request has accepted the request;

a history managing step of managing history information showing a history of notifications provided to each of the plurality of accepter terminals in the notifying step in the past, the history information containing for each notification;

a location at the time of provision of the notification, of an accepter terminal provided with the notification;

a desired location specified in a corresponding request; and

the acceptance information; and

a selecting step, upon acquisition of a new request, of selecting an accepter terminal to which a notification of the new request is provided in the notifying step, according to;

the locations of the plurality of accepter terminals;

a desired location specified in the new request; and

the history information, wherein

upon the acquisition of the new request, the selecting step includes calculating expectation values showing a probability of accepting the new request for each of the plurality of accepter terminals by using;

the locations of the plurality of accepter terminals;

the desired location specified in the new request; and

the history information, and selecting the accepter terminal to which the notifying step provides the notification of the new request, according to the expectation value.

10. A computer-readable non-transitory recording medium on which a program for causing a computer to perform request notification processing is recorded, the request notification processing comprising:

a request acquiring step of acquiring a request for content creation with specification of a desired location for the content creation;

a terminal location acquiring step of acquiring locations of a plurality of accepter terminals each capable of performing the content creation;

a notifying step of providing a notification of the request to an accepter terminal selected from among the accepter terminals;

an acceptance information acquiring step of acquiring acceptance information showing whether or not the selected accepter terminal provided with the notification of the request has accepted the request;

a history managing step of managing history information showing a history of notifications provided to each of the plurality of accepter terminals in the notifying step in the past, the history information containing for each notification;

a location at the time of provision of the notification, of an accepter terminal provided with the notification;

a desired location specified in a corresponding request; and

the acceptance information; and

a selecting step, upon acquisition of a new request, of selecting an accepter terminal to which a notification of the new request is provided in the notifying step, according to;

the locations of the plurality of accepter terminals;

a desired location specified in the new request; and

the history information, wherein

upon the acquisition of the new request, the selecting step includes calculating expectation values showing a probability of accepting the new request for each of the plurality of accepter terminals by using;

the locations of the plurality of accepter terminals;

the desired location specified in the new request; and

the history information, and selecting the accepter terminal to which the notifying step provides the notification of the new request, according to the expectation value.

11. An integrated circuit used in a communication server, comprising:

a request acquiring unit that acquires a data creation request specifying a desired location for data creation from a requester terminal;

a terminal location acquiring unit that acquires locations of a plurality of accepter terminals each capable of performing the data creation;

a notifying unit that provides a notification of the request to an accepter terminal selected from among the accepter terminals;

an acceptance information acquiring unit that acquires acceptance information showing whether or not the selected accepter terminal provided with the notification of the request has accepted the request;

a history managing unit that manages history information showing a history of notifications provided to each of the plurality of accepter terminals by the notifying unit in the past, the history information containing for each notification;

a location at the time of provision of the notification, of an accepter terminal provided with the notification;

a desired location specified in a corresponding request; and

the acceptance information; and

a selecting unit that, upon acquisition of a new request, selects an accepter terminal to which the notifying unit provides a notification of the new request, according to;

the locations of the plurality of accepter terminals;

a desired location specified in the new request; and

the history information, wherein

upon the acquisition of the new request, the selecting unit calculates expectation values showing a probability of accepting the new request for each of the plurality of accepter terminals by using;

the locations of the plurality of accepter terminals;

the desired location specified in the new request; and

the history information, and selects the accepter terminal to which the notifying unit provides the notification of the new request, according to the expectation value.