Information providing device, information providing processing program, recording medium having information providing processing program recorded thereon, and information providing method

• US 9,064,020 B2
• Filed: 04/28/2011
• Issued: 06/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rakuten Group, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Rakuten, Inc. (Rakuten Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Takami, Shinya
• Primary Examiner(s): Alavi, Amir
• Assistant Examiner(s): CESE, KENNY A
• Application Number:
  US13/643,712
• Publication Number:
  US 20130039540A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,517 Days
• Field of Search: 382/103
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries

Abstract

There are provided an information providing device, an information providing processing program, and an information providing method which can efficiently recommend information related to a shooting spot matching a user'"'"'s preference. An information providing server is configured to decide a coincidence between user object information included in image data registered by a given user, and representative object information of a location whose position can be specified, and notify location information associated with the representative object information, to the user based on a decision result of the coincidence.

Claims

1. An information providing device, including at least one processor, comprising:

an object information acquiring unit, within at least one of said at least one processor, that refers to image data and position information in an image data memory that stores the image data associated with user identification information for identifying a user, and the position information of the image data, and acquires object information included in the image data associated with position information within a predetermined range from each location per location whose position can be specified;

a representative object information determining unit, within at least one of said at least one processor, that determines, per location, the object information satisfying a predetermined condition as representative object information of the location based on the object information acquired per location;

a user object information acquiring unit, within at least one of said at least one processor, that acquires, from a picture of the image data stored in association with the user identification information of the user, the object information represented by the picture, as user object information of the user;

a deciding unit, within at least one of said at least one processor, that decides a coincidence between the acquired user object information and the determined representative object information of the location;

a concentration check unit, within at least one of said at least one processor, that identifies locations, within the predetermined range, based on a degree of concentration of shooting spots; and

a notifying unit, within at least one of said at least one processor, notifies location information related to the location stored in a location information memory in association with the representative object information, to the user identified from the user identification information based on a result of the identification by the concentration check unit and a decision result of the coincidence by the deciding unit.

2. The information providing device according to claim 1,

wherein the object information acquiring unit acquires the object information included in each image data for a location at which a number of items of image data associated with the position information within the predetermined range from the location among a plurality of locations whose positions can be specified is a predetermined number or more.

3. The information providing device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a position information acquiring unit, within at least one of said at least one processor, that acquires position information indicating a current position of the user; and

a location specifying unit, within at least one of said at least one processor, that specifies the location within the predetermined range from the current position of the user indicated by the acquired position information, from the plurality of locations whose positions can be specified,

wherein the object information acquiring unit acquires the object information included in the image data associated with the position information within the predetermined range from each location per location specified by the location specifying unit.

4. The information providing device according to claim 2, further comprising:

a position information acquiring unit, within at least one of said at least one processor, that acquires position information indicating a current position of the user; and

a location specifying unit, within at least one of said at least one processor, that specifies the location within the predetermined range from the current position of the user indicated by the acquired position information, from the plurality of locations whose positions can be specified,

wherein the object information acquiring unit acquires the object information included in the image data associated with the position information within the predetermined range from each location per location specified by the location specifying unit.

5. The information providing device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a position information acquiring unit, within at least one of said at least one processor, that acquires position information indicating a current position of a user,

wherein the deciding unit decides a coincidence between representative object information of a location within the predetermined range from the current position of the user indicated by the acquired position information of the representative object information stored in the location information memory, and the acquired user object information.

6. The information providing device according to claim 2, further comprising:

a position information acquiring unit, within at least one of said at least one processor, that acquires position information indicating a current position of a user,

wherein the deciding unit decides a coincidence between representative object information of a location within the predetermined range from the current position of the user indicated by the acquired position information of the representative object information stored in the location information memory, and the acquired user object information.

7. The information providing device according to claim 1,

wherein the object information acquiring unit acquires the object information other than object information of a specific type from the image data.

8. The information providing device according to claim 2,

wherein the object information acquiring unit acquires the object information other than object information of a specific type from the image data.

9. The information providing device according to claim 1,

wherein the notifying unit removes the location information of the location matching the position information of the image data associated with the user identification information of the user, from the location information which is a notification target for the user.

10. The information providing device according to claim 2,

wherein the notifying unit removes the location information of the location matching the position information of the image data associated with the user identification information of the user, from the location information which is a notification target for the user.

11. The information providing device according to claim 1,

wherein the notifying unit removes the location information of the location matching the position information of the image data including the user object information associated with the user identification information of the user, from the location information which is a notification target for the user.

12. The information providing device according to claim 2,

wherein the notifying unit removes the location information of the location matching the position information of the image data including the user object information associated with the user identification information of the user, from the location information which is a notification target for the user.

13. The information providing device according to claim 1,

wherein the user object information acquiring unit acquires the user object information of the user from the image data stored in association with the user identification information of the user.

14. The information providing device according to claim 2,

wherein the user object information acquiring unit acquires the user object information of the user from the image data stored in association with the user identification information of the user.

15. The information providing device according to claim 1,

wherein the user object information acquiring unit acquires object information other than object information of a specific type from the image data as the user object information.

16. The information providing device according to claim 2,

wherein the user object information acquiring unit acquires object information other than object information of a specific type from the image data as the user object information.

17. An information providing method executed by a computer, including at least one processor, comprising:

referring, using at least one of said at least one processor, to image data and position information in an image data memory unit that stores the image data associated with user identification information for identifying a user, and the position information of the image data, and acquiring object information included in the image data associated with position information within a predetermined range from each location per location whose position can be specified;

determining, using at least one of said at least one processor, per location, the object information satisfying a predetermined condition as representative object information of the location based on the object information acquired per location;

acquiring, using at least one of said at least one processor, from a picture of the image data stored in association with the user identification information of the user, the object information represented by the picture, as user object information of the user;

deciding, using at least one of said at least one processor, a coincidence between the acquired user object information and the determined representative object information of the location;

identifying, using at least one of said at least one, locations, within the predetermined range, based on a degree of concentration of shooting spots; and

notifying, using at least one of said at least one processor, location information related to the location stored in a location information memory unit in association with the representative object information, to the user identified from the user identification information based on a result of the identification and a decision result of the coincidence.