JP2013222278A - Facility evaluation device, facility evaluation system, facility evaluation method and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a facility evaluation device, a facility evaluation system and a method with which objective and reliable evaluations of facilities, such as restaurants, can be made.SOLUTION: A facility evaluation server collects information on facility visit histories of facility users, and calculates the number of visits to a target facility made by the respective facility users according to the collected history information. In addition, it calculates the number of visits by genres to facilities in a genre to which the target facility belongs made by the respective facility users according to the collected history information, and narrows down facility users that are relevant to an evaluation of the target facility according to the number of visits by genres. The narrowed-down facility users can be deemed as users that are familiar to the genre, and therefore a reliable evaluation result can be obtained by using the number of visits to the target facility made only by the narrowed-down facility users as the base of the evaluation.

Description

The present invention relates to a facility evaluation apparatus, a facility evaluation system, and a facility evaluation method for determining evaluation of a target facility based on visit history information for the facility.

  With the spread of social networking services, the development of systems and services that utilize the social data is thriving. Some of these systems and services have a mechanism that determines the evaluation of facilities such as restaurants from word-of-mouth information and evaluation points posted by many users via a wide area network. It is. Recently, this type of service is not limited to use through a personal computer or a portable information terminal device, but may be used in cooperation with a facility search system in a navigation device mounted on a vehicle.

  However, on the other hand, in this type of service, since an unspecified number of people become providers of information, the reliability and objectivity of individual information and evaluation vary, and that ultimately means that the service as a whole. The problem of affecting the reliability and objectivity of the company has become apparent.

  Patent Document 1 includes a proposal for solving some of such problems. That is, the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 prepares a mechanism for accumulating a ranking related to the reliability of an information provider for each genre of a facility to be evaluated, and considering the ranking of the information provider, The evaluation of the target facility is adjusted, that is, the weight of information from the information provider having a high ranking is increased.

JP 2007-193427 A

  However, the technology disclosed above still has the following problems. In other words, the determination of the ranking of such information providers is ultimately based on the voting data of an unspecified number of service users with variations in reliability and objectivity. Therefore, if this ranking is taken into account, it may be possible to correct the degree of reliability in the evaluation of the target facility to some extent. To that end, however, voting without reliability and objectivity for this ranking is effective from the aggregated data. It is necessary to construct an algorithm that eliminates the above, and its realization is not always easy.

  On the other hand, there is a method of evaluating a target facility by scoring based on a simple number of users for the target facility. For example, in the in-vehicle navigation device, when a user requests a recommended restaurant in the vicinity, the system recommends a store with a large number of users in a certain period from selection candidates. Since this method is derived based on statistical information such as the number of users, there is no room for subjective elements, and therefore there is an advantage that unbiased results can be provided from the viewpoint of objectivity of results. .

  However, the factor of the number of users for a facility does not necessarily reflect the correct evaluation of the facility, that is, the quality of food and services provided. In other words, the number of users for a facility is greatly affected by other attributes of the facility, such as store visibility, media introduction, location conditions, and the like.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and while scoring based on the number of users is adopted, the characteristics of the facility are classified by classifying the characteristics of individual users and taking this into consideration. It is an object of the present invention to provide a facility evaluation apparatus, system, and method capable of obtaining a result closer to a correct evaluation.

  The facility evaluation apparatus according to the present invention includes a means for collecting facility visit history information of a facility user, a means for counting the number of visits to the target facility for each facility user based on the collected history information, and the collected Based on history information, a facility for counting the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user, and a facility related to the evaluation for the target facility based on the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user Means for narrowing down users.

  Preferably, the facility evaluation apparatus further includes means for collecting posted information of a posting service user including transmission position information from a portable information terminal, and means for collecting facility visit history information of the facility user, The facility visit history information is collected based on post information collected by a post service user including transmission position information from the portable information terminal. Preferably, the facility evaluation apparatus is a facility information database in which information related to a large number of facilities is accumulated, and further includes at least location information of each facility and information on a genre to which each facility belongs, Posting information that includes means for collecting facility visit history information of facility users, including transmission position information relating to the target facility, from post information collected by the posting service user including transmission position information from the portable information terminal. Means for identifying the posting service user, means for collecting other posting information related to the specified posting service user, and referring to the information accumulated in the facility information database, From the transmission position information included in the posting information related to the specified posting service user, the transmission facility related to each posting is specified, and the genre to which the facility belongs is determined Further comprising means that, the. Preferably, the facility evaluation apparatus provides a user with an evaluation request from a user for a specific facility and post information on the specific facility by the narrowed posting service user as an evaluation of the facility. Means are further included.

  Further preferably, the facility evaluation apparatus further includes means for collecting travel history information of a vehicle equipped with a navigation device, and the means for collecting facility visit history information of the facility user includes the collected travel of the vehicle. The facility visit history information is collected based on the history information. Preferably, the facility evaluation apparatus is a facility information database in which information related to a large number of facilities is accumulated, and further includes at least location information of each facility and information on a genre to which each facility belongs, Means for collecting facility visit history information of the facility user, and means for extracting travel history information determined to have visited the target facility from the collected vehicle travel history information; Means for referring to the accumulated information and extracting visit information to a facility of the same genre as the target facility from the extracted travel history information; Preferably, the facility evaluation apparatus determines an evaluation for the target facility based on a means for counting the number of visits to the target facility among the narrowed facility users and the total number of visits to the target facility. And means.

  Preferably, the facility evaluation apparatus further includes means for receiving an evaluation request from a user for a specific facility, and means for providing the user with information on a target facility based on the determined evaluation. Preferably, the means for counting the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user, the first means for counting the number of genre visits in the genre in a specific area including the target facility, And a second means for counting the number of genre visits in the genre.

  Preferably, the means for narrowing down facility users related to the evaluation of the target facility is, according to a user instruction, the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user, the number of visits to the target facility for each facility user, Alternatively, the facility users related to the evaluation of the target facility are narrowed down based on any criterion of whether or not the target facility is visited.

  The facility evaluation system of the present invention accepts an evaluation request from a user with respect to a posting server that collects posting information of a posting service user including transmission position information from a portable information terminal, and a specific facility, and from the server to the facility A facility evaluation system that extracts posted information and provides it to a user as an evaluation for the facility, wherein the facility evaluation server visits the facility based on the posted information of the posting server Means for collecting history information, means for counting the number of visits to the target facility for each facility user based on the collected history information, and for each facility user based on the collected history information Based on the means of counting the genre visits in the genre and the genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user Te comprises means Filter facility users according to evaluation of target facility, post information for the particular facility by the narrowed posts service user, and means for providing to the user as an evaluation for the facility, a.

  Preferably, the facility evaluation server is a facility information database in which information related to a large number of facilities is accumulated, and further includes at least position information of each facility and information of a genre to which each facility belongs, The means for collecting facility visit history information acquires post information including transmission location information related to the target facility from post information collected by a posting service user including transmission location information from the portable information terminal. , Means for identifying the posting service user, means for collecting other posting information relating to the specified posting service user from the server, and referring to information stored in the facility information database, From the transmission position information included in the posting information related to the specified posting service user, the transmission facility related to each posting is specified, and the genre to which the facility belongs is determined. Further comprising means for constant, the.

  The facility evaluation system of the present invention is a facility evaluation system having a facility evaluation server that receives an evaluation request from a user for a specific facility, calculates an evaluation for the facility, and provides information based on the evaluation to the user. The facility evaluation server collects travel history information of a vehicle equipped with a navigation device, means for collecting visit history information for the facility based on the travel history information of the travel history server, A means for counting the number of visits to the target facility for each facility user based on the collected history information, and a means for counting the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user based on the collected history information And evaluation related to the target facility based on the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user. Means for narrowing down users, means for counting the number of visits to the target facility among the narrowed facility users, and means for determining an evaluation for the target facility based on the total number of visits to the target facility; Have.

  Preferably, the facility evaluation server is a facility information database in which information related to a large number of facilities is accumulated, and further includes at least position information of each facility and information of a genre to which each facility belongs, A means for collecting facility visit history information is a means for extracting travel history information determined to have visited the target facility from the collected vehicle travel history information, and information stored in the facility information database. And means for extracting visit information to a facility of the same genre as the target facility from the extracted travel history information.

  The facility evaluation method of the present invention includes a step of collecting facility visit history information of a facility user, a step of counting the number of visits to the target facility for each facility user based on the collected history information, and the collected Based on the history information, the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user, and the facility related to the evaluation for the target facility based on the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user And a step of narrowing down users.

  Preferably, the facility evaluation method further includes a step of collecting post information of a posting service user including transmission position information from a portable information terminal, and the step of collecting facility visit history information of the facility user includes: The facility visit history information is collected based on post information collected by a post service user including transmission position information from the portable information terminal. Preferably, the facility evaluation method further comprises the step of preparing a facility information database storing information relating to a large number of facilities, the information including at least location information of each facility and information on a genre to which each facility belongs. And the step of collecting facility visit history information of the facility user includes sending position information relating to the target facility from the posting information collected by the posting service user including the sending position information from the portable information terminal. And the step of identifying the posting service user, the step of collecting other posting information related to the specified posting service user, and the information accumulated in the facility information database Referring to, from the transmission position information included in the posting information related to the specified posting service user, identify the transmission facility related to each post, Further comprising determining a genre that belongs to the facility, the. Preferably, the facility evaluation method accepts an evaluation request from a user for a specific facility, and provides post information on the specific facility by the narrowed posting service user as an evaluation for the facility. The method further includes a step.

  Preferably, the facility evaluation method further includes a step of collecting traveling history information of a vehicle equipped with a navigation device, and the step of collecting facility visit history information of the facility user includes the collected traveling of the vehicle. The facility visit history information is collected based on the history information. Preferably, the facility evaluation method further includes a step of preparing a facility information database in which information related to a large number of facilities is accumulated, which includes at least position information of each facility and information of a genre to which each facility belongs. And collecting the facility visit history information of the facility user, extracting the travel history information determined to have visited the target facility from the collected travel history information of the vehicle, and the facility A step of referring to the information stored in the information database and extracting visit information to a facility of the same genre as the target facility from the extracted travel history information. Preferably, the facility evaluation method determines the evaluation of the target facility based on the step of counting the number of visits to the target facility by the narrowed facility user and the total number of visits to the target facility. And further comprising a step. Preferably, the step of counting the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user is a first step of counting the number of genre visits in the genre in the specific area including the target facility; And a second step of counting the number of genre visits in the genre. Preferably, the step of narrowing down facility users related to the evaluation for the target facility is, according to a user instruction, the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user, the number of visits to the target facility for each facility user, or The facility users related to the evaluation of the target facility are narrowed down based on any criterion of whether or not the target facility is visited.

  The facility evaluation program of the present invention includes a step of collecting facility visit history information of a facility user, a step of counting the number of visits to the target facility for each facility user based on the collected history information, and the collected Based on the history information, the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user, and the facility related to the evaluation for the target facility based on the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user And a step of narrowing down users.

  Preferably, the facility evaluation program further includes a step of collecting post information of a posting service user including transmission position information from a portable information terminal, and the step of collecting facility visit history information of the facility user includes: The facility visit history information is collected based on post information collected by a post service user including transmission position information from the portable information terminal.

  Also preferably, the facility evaluation program further includes a step of collecting traveling history information of a vehicle equipped with a navigation device, and the step of collecting facility visit history information of the facility user includes the collected traveling of the vehicle. The facility visit history information is collected based on the history information.

  In the present invention, the evaluation of the target facility is determined based on the visit history information of the facility user. At that time, the number of genre visits in the genre of the facility user's facility is referred to. Thereby, the visit history information of the facility user whose genre visit count does not satisfy the reference value can be excluded from the evaluation data of the target facility. In other words, the evaluation by users with a small number of visits to facilities of the same genre as the target facility is, on average, more reliable and less reliable than the evaluation by users with many visits. It can be said that objectivity is low. Therefore, according to the evaluation according to the present invention excluding the data of these evaluators, there is an effect that a result with higher reliability and objectivity can be obtained.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an overall configuration of a facility evaluation system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the message posting service server of FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the facility evaluation server of FIG. It is an example of 1 data structure of a facility information database. It is an example of data of unspecified facility visit history information according to user. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of a vehicle-mounted navigation apparatus. FIG. 7A is an example of a screen interface for requesting word-of-mouth information about a facility in the peripheral facility search, and FIG. 7B is a screen configured based on a response from the facility evaluation server 300 regarding the evaluation of the target facility. It is an example of an interface. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process in the facility evaluation server of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process in the facility evaluation server of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process in the facility evaluation server of FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the whole structure of the facility evaluation system which concerns on the 2nd Example of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the facility evaluation server of FIG. It is a figure which shows the one display aspect of the recommendation information of a facility sent to the vehicle-mounted navigation apparatus of an evaluation requester. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process in the facility evaluation server of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process in the facility evaluation server of FIG.

  Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Hereinafter, the details of the present invention will be described using a facility evaluation system that can be used from an in-vehicle navigation device via the Internet as an example.

  First, a description will be given of a first embodiment of the present invention in which a message stored in a message posting service server is used as original data of facility usage history information. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the facility evaluation system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

  As shown in the figure, the facility evaluation system 100 includes a message posting service server 200 and a facility evaluation server 300 that are constructed to be disclosed on the Internet 102. The message posting service server 200 accepts messages mainly composed of characters from a personal digital assistant or other Internet connection computer 104 by registered users of the service so that other users can freely view the posted messages. It is composed. As will be described later, the message posting service server 200 includes a public application programming interface (hereinafter referred to as “public API”) that makes it possible for other computer systems to use these posted messages. Can access the message of the message posting service server 200 via this public API.

  The facility evaluation server 300 receives a request for word-of-mouth information on a specific facility (for example, one ramen shop in the vehicle surrounding area) from the in-vehicle navigation device 106, collects usage history information of the facility, analyzes it, It is configured to return word-of-mouth information as its evaluation for the facility. The facility evaluation server 300 uses the posted message acquired from the message posting service server 200 as the usage history information of the facility. The posted message includes attribute information of the message called meta information in addition to the message body. The facility evaluation server 300 obtains the usage history information of the target facility from this posted message by using at least each of the information of the poster user ID, the posting date and time, and the transmission point coordinates.

  Next, the configuration of the message posting service server will be briefly described. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the message posting service server. In the figure, the message posting service server 200 has hardware resources configured as a Web application built on a general-purpose computer and an operating system, but only the configuration related to this embodiment is shown here. The communication processing unit 202 provides an interface that enables data communication with a user terminal via the Internet. That is, a message posting from the user terminal is accepted, and screen configuration data including message data is provided in response to a message browsing request from the user terminal.

  The message provision processing unit 204 responds to provide a message or other public information in response to a request based on the public API from an external computer system including the facility evaluation server 300. An external computer system can acquire a part or all of data such as messages stored in the server via the public API.

  In the storage unit 206 of the message posting service server 200, posted message data 208 and user data 210 related to registered user attribute information are stored in a database as accumulated data based on registered user posts. The posted message data 208 that is made into a database includes at least a message identification ID, a user identification ID, a posting date, and origination point coordinates as meta information in addition to the message body. The transmission point coordinate information can be acquired by including the current position coordinates obtained from the coordinate acquisition function by GPS (Global Positioning System) included in the portable information terminal in the meta information of the message (not targeted by user setting). Can also). Further, the user data 210 may include a user identification ID, a user name, a user email address, a user profile, a location, and the like. A set of messages related to a specific user can be collected by referring to the identification ID of the user possessed by each message. Each function of the message posting service server 200 is controlled by the control unit 212 and is operated in response to a request message from the outside.

  Next, the configuration of the facility evaluation server will be described. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the facility evaluation server. In the figure, the facility evaluation server 300 has hardware resources configured as a Web application built on a general-purpose computer and an operating system, but only the configuration related to the present embodiment is shown here. The communication processing unit 302 provides an interface that enables data communication with the navigation device via the Internet. The evaluation request processing unit 304 receives a request (specifically, a request for word-of-mouth information) related to an evaluation for a specific facility from one or a plurality of navigation devices. The evaluation request for the facility from the navigation device includes at least the identification ID of the navigation device that has transmitted the evaluation request, and the position coordinate information of the facility acquired by the navigation device. In response to an inappropriate request, processing such as returning it to the navigation device side is executed.

  Upon receiving a facility evaluation request from the navigation device, the visit history information acquisition unit 306 collects necessary information by accessing the message posting service server 200 to acquire facility user visit history information for the target facility. As a functional component, a facility-related message collection unit 308, a posting user identification unit 310, a user message acquisition unit 312, and a facility genre determination unit 314 are provided. The facility-related message collection unit 308 collects a posted message transmitted from the facility related to the evaluation request via the public API provided by the message posting service server 200. Specifically, a message data transmission request is issued to the message posting service server 200 using the facility position coordinate information from the navigation device acquired by the evaluation request processing unit 304 as a parameter. In this case, the facility-related message collection unit 308 may issue a request by limiting the transmission time of the message (for example, only messages for the latest one year). In response to this request from the facility evaluation server 300, the message posting service server 200 refers to the origin point coordinates of each message, extracts a message that matches the position coordinates included in the request from the database, and has an arbitrary data format. Composes the response and sends it to the requesting server. The message related to the target facility acquired by the facility-related message collection unit 308 is stored in the storage unit 316 as target facility visit history information 320. Each message included in this information is a live voice of the facility by the user of the facility, and this is base data for word-of-mouth information. At this time, it is effective to perform filtering using an algorithm such as a keyword match or a Bayesian filter so that messages not related to the facility evaluation are excluded from this information.

  The posting user specifying unit 310 specifies a user of a posting service that has transmitted each message from the message group acquired by the facility-related message collecting unit 308, and generates a data list of facility users who have visited the target facility. . Based on the list of facility users generated by the posting user identification unit 310, the user message acquisition unit 312 acquires all acquirable messages related to the transmission of the users. That is, the message posting service server 200 is accessed again, a request for message request is issued using the identification ID of the user included in the facility user list as a parameter, and all the corresponding requests from the message posting service server 200 are issued. Get the response that contains the message.

  The facility genre determination unit 314 extracts the origin point coordinates from all the messages of the target user acquired by the user message acquisition unit 312, refers to the facility information database 318 described later, and the genre of the facility related to the coordinates Is specified. That is, the facility information database 318 includes position coordinate information of each facility and genre information (eg, “ramen store”) to which the facility belongs, and the facility genre determination unit 314 transmits the coordinates of the transmission point of each message. Is compared with the position information of the facility information database 318, and when the corresponding data is found, the target message is extracted and data integrated with the genre information is generated. These data are stored in the storage unit 316 as visit history information (unspecified facility visit history information for each user) 322 for each user.

  FIG. 4 shows a data configuration example of the facility information database 318. As shown in the figure, the facility information database 318 includes, as its data fields, a facility identification ID, a facility point coordinate, a facility name, a genre to which the facility belongs (“main genre” and “sub genre” in the figure), and a facility relationship. Information and date of data registration can be included. Specific data in the field of the genre to which the facility belongs include, for example, the main genre “restaurant”, the sub genre “ramen”, the main genre “public facility”, and the sub genre “airport”.

  FIG. 5 shows a data example of the unspecified facility visit history information 322 for each user. As shown in the figure, user-specific unspecified facility visit history information 322 is extracted from the user identification ID, message origination point coordinates, message transmission date and time, message body, and facility information database 318 as the data field. The name of the facility related to the origin point coordinates and the genre information of the facility are configured. When this information is referenced for each user, the tendency of the facility where the user stops and the user's preference can be seen. The facility evaluation server 300 uses this information to generate information related to the evaluation of the target facility.

  Returning to FIG. 3, the facility evaluation server 300 includes a target facility visit count totaling unit 324 and a target facility genre visit count totaling unit 326. Based on the information of the target facility visit history information 320 stored in the storage unit 316, that is, the message group transmitted from the facility acquired by the facility-related message collection unit 308, the target facility visit count counting unit 324 Count the number of visits. The total result is stored in the storage unit 316. The user who likes and uses the target store is specified based on the total result. Such a user is a so-called local regular customer or repeater, and therefore the message that is issued is likely to be useful as word-of-mouth information.

  The target facility genre visit count counting unit 326 counts the number of visits for each user with respect to a facility related to the same genre as the target facility based on the information of the user-specific unspecified facility visit history information 322 in the storage unit 316. That is, records having the genre related to the target facility are extracted from the user-specific unspecified facility visit history information 322, and the number of records is counted for each user. The total result is stored in the storage unit 316. The user who likes and uses the facility related to the target genre is specified based on the total result. Such a user is a user who is familiar with the genre, and therefore, the message that is issued is likely to be extremely useful as word-of-mouth information. Here, the target facility genre visit count counting unit 326 can also count the target facilities of the same genre in a certain area.

  The facility evaluation server 300 further includes a word-of-mouth information providing unit 328, which has a function of configuring word-of-mouth information as a result of a facility evaluation request from the in-vehicle navigation device and providing it to the requester. As will be described later, the facility evaluation request from the in-vehicle navigation device is a request for requesting word-of-mouth information for the target facility. The requester selectively selects (1) word-of-mouth information by the user for the target facility, (2 It is possible to request either)) word-of-mouth information by regular customers, or (3) word-of-mouth information by customers familiar with the genre. In response to these requests, the word-of-mouth information providing unit 328 refers to any of the above-described aggregation results, identifies the extraction target user of the message, and uses the message related to the user as the word-of-mouth information for the facility, in-vehicle navigation Send to device. The above-described functions of the facility evaluation server 300 are controlled and functioned by the control unit 330 as a whole.

  Next, the configuration of the in-vehicle navigation device using the facility evaluation server will be briefly described. FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the in-vehicle navigation device. As shown in the figure, the navigation device 106 is a bus interface (I / F) 602 that receives various signals related to the state of the vehicle from the in-vehicle bus, and a GPS that receives a signal from a GPS satellite and detects the position of the vehicle. Receiver 604, VICS receiver 606 for receiving road traffic information distributed from the VICS center, input unit 608 for receiving input from the user, communication control unit 610 for realizing data communication with external services on the Internet, large capacity A storage unit 612 including a storage medium such as a hard disk, a sound output unit 616 that outputs sound from the speaker 614, a display control unit 620 that displays an image such as a road map on the display 618, a program memory 622 that stores a program, and data temporarily Stored data memory 624, execute program Configured to include a control unit 626 for controlling each section in the.

  The input unit 608 includes an operation panel that allows the user to input by touching the display 618. The storage unit 612 stores road map data necessary for navigation. The program memory 622 includes an own vehicle position calculation program 628 for calculating the own vehicle position based on a detection signal from the self-contained navigation sensor and the GPS receiver 604, and an optimum guidance route from the own vehicle position and other start positions to the destination. A guidance route guidance program 630 for searching and guiding this information, a nearby facility search program 632 for searching for a facility within a specific area designated by the user's own vehicle position or the user, and acquiring word-of-mouth information of the facility, etc. .

  The user of the in-vehicle navigation device 106 can use the facility evaluation service according to this evaluation system by starting the peripheral facility search program 632. That is, in the peripheral facility search, the user can specify a specific genre and search for the corresponding facility located in the surrounding area of the vehicle. Can be obtained through.

  FIG. 7A shows an example of a screen interface for requesting word-of-mouth information about a facility in the peripheral facility search. The figure shows a display example of a result of a search performed by a user setting “Ramen shop” as the genre as a target of the peripheral facility search. The display is provided in the form of a list 700 according to the name of the facility, and a button 702 for requesting word-of-mouth information of the facility is arranged beside each facility name. When the user wants to know the reputation of the target facility and operates the corresponding button, a request to the facility evaluation server 300 is transmitted. When the button 702 is pressed, a selection menu pops up, and the type of word-of-mouth information, that is, (1) word-of-mouth by all users, (2) word-of-mouth by regular customers, or (3) customers familiar with the genre Can be configured to be selectable. This request preferably includes the identification ID of the in-vehicle navigation device, the identification ID of the target facility, the name of the target facility, its corresponding genre, position coordinate information, and the type of word-of-mouth information related to the request. The screen interface shown here is only one configuration aspect for requesting word-of-mouth information. It is also possible to adopt an interface in which the selection menu is displayed by pointing the target facility on another display mode, for example, the map display screen, and the word-of-mouth information request is realized by the selection.

  FIG. 7B shows an example of a screen interface configured based on a response from the facility evaluation server 300 relating to the evaluation of the target facility. This screen includes a review information list 704 for the selected facility. In the preferred embodiment, each item in the list includes a message name plus a user name or ID that identifies the originating user.

  Next, a flow of a series of processes in the facility evaluation system in the present embodiment will be described with reference to the attached flowchart. FIGS. 8 to 10 are flowcharts showing the flow of processing in the facility evaluation server 300 when a request for word-of-mouth information for a specific facility is made from the in-vehicle navigation device.

  In FIG. 8, the process 800 is started by a word-of-mouth information request for a specific facility from the in-vehicle navigation device (step S802). As described above, this request includes the identification ID of the in-vehicle navigation device, the identification ID of the target facility, the name of the target facility, its corresponding genre, position coordinate information, and the type of word-of-mouth information related to the request. Upon receiving this request from the in-vehicle navigation device, the facility evaluation server 300 analyzes the content (step S804), and determines whether the request is made in conformity with a specified rule (step S806). If it is determined that the request is illegal, a response including the request is generated, returned to the in-vehicle navigation device related to the request, and the process ends (step S808).

  On the other hand, when it is determined that the request from the in-vehicle navigation device is appropriate, it is determined whether or not the same request as the request has been made in the past (preferably limiting the period) (step S809). If the same request has been made in the past, the corresponding word-of-mouth information in the storage unit is extracted and a response is constructed (step S810).

  If the same request does not exist, a request for requesting a message is generated based on the position coordinate information included in the request (step S812) and transmitted to the message posting service server 200 (step S814). That is, a set of messages having the position coordinate information is requested. In response to this request, if there is no response from the message posting service server 200 within a certain time (step S816), a response including a message indicating that word-of-mouth information cannot be acquired is generated and sent to the requesting in-vehicle navigation device. (Step S818). When the response from the message posting service server 200 is obtained, the system analyzes this (step S820), and when the corresponding message group is included therein, this is stored in the storage unit as the target facility visit history information 320. Accumulate (step S822).

  Moving to FIG. 9, the system then identifies the sending user of each message from the target facility visit history information 320 (step S 824), and requests all the messages that can be acquired based on the list of the sending user. A request to be generated is generated (step S826). Then, this request is transmitted to the message posting service server 200 (step S828), and a response is awaited. In response to this request, if there is no response from the message posting service server 200 within a certain time (step S830), a response including a message indicating that word-of-mouth information cannot be acquired is generated and sent to the requesting in-vehicle navigation device. (Step S832). However, when the requested word-of-mouth information is of a type related to all users, the word-of-mouth information may be generated from the message of the target facility visit history information 320 and transmitted.

  Next, when a response is obtained from the message posting service server 200, the system analyzes this (step S834), and when the corresponding message group is included therein, from the origin point coordinate information of each message. The facility is specified (messages having no transmission point coordinate information are excluded), and the genre of the facility is determined and recorded (step S836). That is, the facility information database 318 of the storage unit is read, the presence of facility information having coordinates that match the origination point coordinates of each message is searched, and if there is a corresponding facility, the message is extracted (step S838). The information is integrated with the corresponding genre information and stored in the storage unit as unspecified facility visit history information 322 for each user (step S840).

  Next, the system refers to the target facility visit history information 320 and counts the number of visits per user for the target facility (step S842). Furthermore, referring to the user-specific unspecified facility visit history information 322, the number of visits for each user with respect to a facility having the same genre as the target facility is totaled (step S844). Next, in accordance with the type of word-of-mouth information related to the request from the in-vehicle navigation device, a response including the word-of-mouth information based on the message from the message posting service server 200 is generated (step S846). That is, when the type of word-of-mouth information related to the request is related to word-of-mouth by a person familiar with the genre, the number of visits is referred to by referring to the number of visits to facilities belonging to the genre, which is tabulated in step S844. Extract messages from users who have a lot of words and compose it as word-of-mouth information. If the type of word-of-mouth information related to the request is related to word-of-mouth by a local regular customer, refer to the number of visits to the target facility, which is tabulated in step S842, and send a message of a user with a large number of visits. Extracted and configured as word-of-mouth information. Further, when the type of word-of-mouth information related to the request relates to word-of-mouth by all users, all messages of the target facility visit history information 320 are extracted and configured as word-of-mouth information. Then, the generated word-of-mouth information is transmitted to the in-vehicle navigation device side according to the request, and this process is terminated (step S848).

  Next, a description will be given of a second embodiment of the present invention in which travel history information of a vehicle is used as original data of facility use history information. FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the facility evaluation system according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

  As shown in the figure, the facility evaluation system 1100 is configured to include a facility evaluation server 1200 constructed to be disclosed on the Internet 1102. The facility evaluation server 1200 has a function of receiving and storing travel history information from the in-vehicle navigation device 1104. The saved travel history information includes a travel route for each vehicle, that is, position coordinate information through which the vehicle has passed and passage time information at the coordinate point. This travel history information is provided in response to a request from a user or a request from another computer system, and is also used for construction of statistical data related to travel of the vehicle.

  The facility evaluation server 1200 receives a request for generating a recommended list of facilities related to a specific genre (for example, a ramen shop in the vicinity of the vehicle) from the in-vehicle navigation device 1104, collects usage history information of the facility, It is configured to analyze and determine a recommended facility according to the evaluation of the surrounding facilities related to the genre. The facility evaluation server 1200 uses the previous travel history information as the use history information of the facility. As described above, the travel history information includes the position coordinate information that the vehicle has passed and the passage time information at the coordinate point, and the coordinate point where the movement of the vehicle has not been seen for a certain period of time stops at some facility. Can be determined.

  Next, a specific configuration of the facility evaluation server will be described. FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the facility evaluation server in this embodiment. In the figure, the facility evaluation server 1200 has a hardware resource configured as a Web application built on a general-purpose computer and an operating system, as in the previous embodiment, but here, only the configuration related to the present embodiment. Is shown. The communication processing unit 1202 provides an interface that enables data communication with the navigation apparatus via the Internet. The travel history information collection unit 1204 sequentially receives the travel history information from the in-vehicle navigation device of the vehicle related to the user who climbed the server service, and accumulates it in the storage unit 1214. The evaluation request processing unit 1206 receives a facility evaluation request from one or a plurality of navigation devices. Specifically, this is a request for recommended facility information of a specific genre in the area around the vehicle. The evaluation request for the facility from the navigation device includes at least the identification ID of the navigation device that has transmitted the evaluation request, the genre of the target facility, and information on the facility for which one or a plurality of evaluations are requested (at least position coordinate information thereof). ) Is included, and it is determined whether or not the information is appropriately included in the request, and processing such as returning the fact to the navigation apparatus side in response to the inappropriate request is executed.

  Upon receiving a facility evaluation request from the navigation device, the visit history information acquisition unit 1208 accesses the travel history information stored in the storage unit 1214 to obtain necessary information in order to acquire the visit history information of the facility related to the genre. The facility-related travel history information collecting unit 1210 and the target genre facility visit information extracting unit 1212 are provided as functional components. The facility-related travel history information collection unit 1210 accesses the travel history information 1216, and extracts the position coordinate information of the facility determined to have stopped during the travel from the travel state. This can be realized by extracting position coordinate information in which no movement of the vehicle is seen in a traveling history for a certain time or longer (for example, 30 minutes or longer). The target genre facility visit information extraction unit 1212 refers to the facility information database 1218 stored in the storage unit 1214 (having the same information as the previous embodiment), and for each point extracted from the travel history, Then, it is determined whether the point is a facility related to the designated genre, and only the information related to the corresponding point is extracted. That is, information on a facility having a genre related to an evaluation request from the in-vehicle navigation device is extracted from the facility information database 1218, and it is determined whether each stop point extracted from the travel history is a point of the extracted facility. And only the information of such a point is collected and preserve | saved in the memory | storage part 1214 as the facility visit log | history information 1220 for every vehicle user (for every identification ID of a vehicle-mounted navigation apparatus). This facility visit history information 1220 includes at least the identification ID of the in-vehicle navigation device, the position coordinate information, the corresponding facility name, and the passage date and time for each point.

  Next, the facility evaluation server 1200 includes a target facility visit count totaling unit 1222, a target facility genre visit count totaling unit 1224, and a target user specifying unit 1226. The target facility visit count totaling unit 1222 counts the number of visits of one or a plurality of target facilities related to the evaluation request for each user based on the information in the facility visit history information 1220 of the storage unit 1214. In other words, records having the position coordinates of the target facility are extracted from the facility visit history information 1220 and tabulated for each user (for each identification ID of the in-vehicle navigation device). The aggregation result is stored in the storage unit 1214. The user who likes and uses the target store is specified based on the total result. Such users are likely to be so-called local regular customers or repeaters.

  Similarly, the target facility genre visit count totaling unit 1224 counts the number of visits for each user with respect to a facility related to the same genre as the target facility based on information in the facility visit history information 1220 of the storage unit 1214. That is, the number of records of the facility visit history information 1220 is totaled for each user. The aggregation result is stored in the storage unit 1214. The user who likes and uses the facility related to the target genre is specified based on the total result. Such a user is a user who is familiar with the genre, and therefore, the message that is issued is likely to be extremely useful as word-of-mouth information. Here, the target facility genre visit count counting unit 1224 can also count the target facilities of the same genre in a certain region. The target user specifying unit 1226 determines a user who is familiar with the genre from the results of the totalization by the target facility genre visit count counting unit 1224, sets a predetermined number of visits in the genre, and selects users exceeding this number. It is determined that the user is familiar with the genre.

  The facility evaluation server 1200 further includes a target facility evaluation providing unit 1228, which has a function of configuring recommended information as a result of a facility evaluation request from the in-vehicle navigation device and providing the recommended information to the requester. That is, one or a plurality of facilities related to the request is scored based on the total number of visits, and a list of recommended ranks is generated based on the result, and transmitted to the requester. Specifically, only the number of visits to the target facility related to the user selected by the target user specifying unit 1226 (one familiar with the genre) is extracted from the results counted by the target facility visit count counting unit 1222. The number of times is taken as the score of the target facility. At this time, it is preferable to normalize the number of visits to each facility based on the maximum number of visits (for example, score = number of visits to the target facility × 100 ÷ maximum number of visits). FIG. 13 shows one display mode of facility recommendation information sent to the in-vehicle navigation device of the evaluation requester. A list 1300 of recommended ramen stores determined by the scoring is generated in response to a request from a nearby recommended ramen store, and a button for setting the score and destination is arranged next to each store information. The The above-described functions of the facility evaluation server 1200 are controlled and functioned by the control unit 1230 as a whole.

  Next, a flow of a series of processes in the facility evaluation system in the present embodiment will be described with reference to the attached flowchart. 14 and 15 are flowcharts showing the flow of processing in the facility evaluation server 1200 when an evaluation request for a specific facility is made from the in-vehicle navigation device. Here, it is assumed that traveling history information collected from a large number of in-vehicle navigation devices is already stored in the storage unit of the facility evaluation server 1200.

  In FIG. 14, this processing 1400 is started by an evaluation request (recommended store information) for a specific facility from the in-vehicle navigation device (step S1402). As described above, this request includes the identification ID of the navigation device, the genre of the target facility, and the facility information for which one or a plurality of evaluations are requested. Upon receiving this request from the in-vehicle navigation device, the facility evaluation server 1200 analyzes the content (step S1404), and determines whether the request is made in conformity with a prescribed rule (step S1406). If it is determined that the request is illegal, a response including the request is generated, returned to the in-vehicle navigation device related to the request, and the process ends (step S1408).

  On the other hand, when it is determined that the request from the in-vehicle navigation device is appropriate, the travel history information in the storage unit is accessed, and the position coordinate information of the facility that is determined to have stopped during the travel is extracted therefrom (step) S1410). However, this processing can be performed in advance prior to this request, and it is preferable to improve the response speed to the request. Next, the process refers to the facility information database 1218 to determine whether each point extracted from the travel history is a point of the facility according to the designated genre, and the corresponding point is applied. Only information is extracted (step S1412). Then, this is stored in the storage unit as facility visit history information 1220.

  Moving to FIG. 15, the system tabulates and records the number of visits to the target facility related to the evaluation request for each user based on the information in the facility visit history information 1220 (step S 1416). The user who likes and uses the target store is specified based on the total result. Next, based on the information in the facility visit history information 1220, the number of visits for each user with respect to the facility in the same genre as the target facility is totaled and recorded (step S1418). The user who likes and uses the facility related to the target genre is specified based on the total result. Then, the user who is familiar with the genre is determined as the user who is familiar with the genre from the result of the aggregation (step S1420).

  Next, the facilities according to the request are scored based on the total number of visits to each facility (step S1422). The specific method of scoring is as described above. Then, based on this scoring, a response including the recommended information on the facility related to the request is generated and transmitted to the requester, thereby ending this processing (step S1424).

  The preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above. However, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments, and various modifications and changes can be made within the scope of the gist of the invention described in the claims. It can be changed. For example, the present invention is implemented with a configuration in which each function of the facility evaluation server described in the first embodiment is provided in an in-vehicle navigation device, and a message is collected by accessing the message posting service server directly from the in-vehicle navigation device. It is also possible to do.

104: portable information terminal 106: in-vehicle navigation device 200: message posting service server 202: communication processing unit 204: message provision processing unit 206: storage unit 208: posted message data 210: user data 212: control unit 300: facility evaluation server 302 : Communication processing unit 304: Evaluation request processing unit 306: Visit history information acquisition unit 308: Facility related message collection unit 310: Posting user identification unit 312: User message acquisition unit 314: Facility genre determination unit 316: Storage unit 318: Facility information Database 320: Target facility visit history information 322: Unspecified facility visit history information by user 324: Target facility visit count counting unit 326: Target facility genre visit count count unit 328: Review information providing unit 330: Control unit

Claims (26)

Means for collecting facility visit history information of facility users;
Based on the collected history information, means for counting the number of visits to the target facility for each facility user;
Based on the collected history information, means for counting the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user;
Based on the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user, means for narrowing down facility users related to the evaluation for the target facility;
A facility evaluation apparatus. The facility evaluation apparatus further includes means for collecting post information of a posting service user including transmission position information from a portable information terminal,
The means for collecting facility visit history information of the facility user collects the facility visit history information based on post information collected by the posting service user including transmission position information from the portable information terminal. The facility evaluation apparatus according to claim 1. The facility evaluation apparatus is a facility information database in which information related to a large number of facilities is accumulated, and further includes at least location information of each facility and information on a genre to which each facility belongs,
Means for collecting facility visit history information of the facility user;
Means for acquiring post information including transmission position information related to a target facility from post information collected by a posting service user including transmission position information from the portable information terminal, and specifying the posting service user When,
Means for collecting other posting information relating to the specified posting service user;
Referring to the information stored in the facility information database, the transmission facility related to each posting is specified from the transmission position information included in the posting information related to the specified posting service user, and the genre to which the facility belongs Means for determining
The facility evaluation apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising: The facility evaluation apparatus
Means for accepting an evaluation request from a user for a specific facility;
Means for providing post information on the specific facility by the narrowed posting service user to the user as an evaluation of the facility;
The facility evaluation apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising: The facility evaluation device further includes means for collecting travel history information of a vehicle equipped with a navigation device,
The facility evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the facility user collecting facility visit history information collects the facility visit history information based on the collected vehicle travel history information. The facility evaluation apparatus is a facility information database in which information related to a large number of facilities is accumulated, and further includes at least location information of each facility and information on a genre to which each facility belongs,
Means for collecting facility visit history information of the facility user;
Means for extracting travel history information determined to have visited the target facility from the collected travel history information of the vehicle;
Means for referring to information stored in the facility information database and extracting visit information to the facility of the same genre as the target facility from the extracted travel history information;
The facility evaluation apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising: The facility evaluation apparatus
Means for counting the number of visits to the target facility among the narrowed facility users;
The facility evaluation apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising means for determining an evaluation for the target facility based on the total number of visits to the target facility. The facility evaluation apparatus
Means for accepting an evaluation request from a user for a specific facility;
Means for providing information on a target facility based on the determined evaluation to a user;
The facility evaluation apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising: Means for counting the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user,
A first means for counting the number of genre visits in the genre within a specific area including the target facility;
A second means for counting genre visits in the genre across the country;
The facility evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, comprising: The means for narrowing down facility users related to the evaluation of the target facility is, according to a user instruction, the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user, the number of visits to the target facility for each facility user, or the target facility The facility evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the facility users according to the evaluation for the target facility are narrowed down based on any criterion of whether or not there is a visit. A posting server that collects posting information of a posting service user including transmission position information from a portable information terminal, and accepts an evaluation request from a user for a specific facility, extracts the posting information for the facility from the server, and A facility evaluation server provided to a user as an evaluation for a facility, the facility evaluation system comprising:
Means for collecting visit history information for the facility based on the posting information of the posting server;
Based on the collected history information, means for counting the number of visits to the target facility for each facility user;
Based on the collected history information, means for counting the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user;
Based on the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user, means for narrowing down facility users related to the evaluation for the target facility;
Means for providing post information on the specific facility by the narrowed posting service user to the user as an evaluation of the facility;
A facility evaluation system. The facility evaluation server is a facility information database in which information related to a large number of facilities is accumulated, and further includes at least location information of each facility and information on a genre to which each facility belongs,
Means for collecting the facility visit history information,
Means for acquiring post information including transmission position information related to a target facility from post information collected by a posting service user including transmission position information from the portable information terminal, and specifying the posting service user When,
Means for collecting other posting information relating to the specified posting service user from the server;
Referring to the information stored in the facility information database, the transmission facility related to each posting is specified from the transmission position information included in the posting information related to the specified posting service user, and the genre to which the facility belongs Means for determining
The facility evaluation system according to claim 11, further comprising: A facility evaluation system having a facility evaluation server that receives an evaluation request from a user for a specific facility, calculates an evaluation for the facility, and provides information based on the evaluation to the user, wherein the facility evaluation server includes:
A travel history server that collects travel history information of a vehicle equipped with a navigation device;
Means for collecting visit history information for the facility based on the travel history information of the travel history server;
Based on the collected history information, means for counting the number of visits to the target facility for each facility user;
Based on the collected history information, means for counting the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user;
Based on the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user, means for narrowing down facility users related to the evaluation for the target facility;
Means for counting the number of visits to the target facility among the narrowed facility users;
Means for determining an evaluation for the target facility based on the tabulated number of visits to the target facility;
A facility evaluation system. The facility evaluation server is a facility information database in which information related to a large number of facilities is accumulated, and further includes at least location information of each facility and information on a genre to which each facility belongs,
Means for collecting the facility visit history information,
Means for extracting travel history information determined to have visited the target facility from the collected travel history information of the vehicle;
Means for referring to information stored in the facility information database and extracting visit information to the facility of the same genre as the target facility from the extracted travel history information;
The facility evaluation system according to claim 13, further comprising: Collecting facility visit history information of facility users;
Based on the collected history information, the step of counting the number of visits to the target facility for each facility user;
Based on the collected history information, a step of counting the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user;
Based on the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user, narrowing down facility users related to the evaluation for the target facility;
A facility evaluation method. The facility evaluation method further includes the step of collecting posting information of a posting service user including transmission position information from a portable information terminal,
The step of collecting facility visit history information of the facility user collects the facility visit history information based on post information collected by the posting service user including transmission position information from the portable information terminal. The facility evaluation method according to claim 15. The facility evaluation method further includes a facility information database in which information related to a large number of facilities is accumulated, and at least a location information including location information of each facility and information of a genre to which each facility belongs,
Collecting facility visit history information of the facility user,
The step of acquiring the posting information including the transmission position information related to the target facility from the collected posting information of the posting service user including the transmission position information from the portable information terminal, and specifying the posting service user When,
Collecting other posting information relating to the specified posting service user;
Referring to the information stored in the facility information database, the transmission facility related to each posting is specified from the transmission position information included in the posting information related to the specified posting service user, and the genre to which the facility belongs A step of determining
The facility evaluation method according to claim 16, further comprising: The facility evaluation method includes:
Receiving an evaluation request from a user for a specific facility;
Providing post information for the specific facility by the narrowed posting service user to the user as an evaluation for the facility;
The facility evaluation method according to claim 16 or 17, further comprising: The facility evaluation method further includes a step of collecting travel history information of a vehicle equipped with a navigation device,
The facility evaluation method according to claim 15, wherein the step of collecting facility visit history information of the facility user collects the facility visit history information based on the collected vehicle travel history information. The facility evaluation method is a facility information database in which information relating to a large number of facilities is accumulated, and further includes a step of preparing at least the location information of each facility and the information of the genre to which each facility belongs,
Collecting facility visit history information of the facility user,
Extracting the travel history information determined to have visited the target facility from the collected travel history information of the vehicle;
Referring to information stored in the facility information database, extracting from the extracted travel history information visit information to facilities of the same genre as the target facility;
The facility evaluation method according to claim 19, further comprising: The facility evaluation method includes:
Totaling the number of visits to the target facility among the narrowed facility users;
The facility evaluation method according to claim 19 or 20, further comprising a step of determining an evaluation for the target facility based on the total number of visits to the target facility. The step of counting the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user,
A first step of counting the number of genre visits in the genre within a specific area including the target facility;
A second step of counting the number of genre visits in the genre across the country;
The facility evaluation method according to claim 15. The step of narrowing down facility users related to the evaluation for the target facility includes the number of visited facilities in the genre of the target facility for each facility user, the number of visits to the target facility for each facility user, or the target facility The facility evaluation method according to claim 15, wherein the facility users related to the evaluation with respect to the target facility are narrowed down based on any criterion of whether or not there is a visit. Collecting facility visit history information of facility users;
Based on the collected history information, the step of counting the number of visits to the target facility for each facility user,
Based on the collected history information, a step of counting the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user;
Based on the number of genre visits in the genre of the target facility for each facility user, narrowing down facility users related to the evaluation for the target facility;
A facility evaluation program. The facility evaluation program further includes a step of collecting posting information of a posting service user including transmission position information from a portable information terminal,
The step of collecting facility visit history information of the facility user collects the facility visit history information based on post information collected by the posting service user including transmission position information from the portable information terminal. The facility evaluation program according to claim 24. The facility evaluation program further includes a step of collecting travel history information of a vehicle equipped with a navigation device,
25. The facility evaluation program according to claim 24, wherein the step of collecting facility visit history information of the facility user collects the facility visit history information based on the collected vehicle travel history information.

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