JP2002092023A - Information providing device and its method and recording medium with information providing program recorded thereon - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information providing device and method for acquiring a user profile including the sex and age of a user and the level information of the user's interests in information and the user's evaluation information on the information from the user's appearance, line of sight, expression, and motion, and selecting and providing proper information to the user based on the information and a recording medium in which an information providing program is recorded. SOLUTION: A user profile including the age and sex of a user is acquired by a user profile reading device 13, and which information interests the user to which extent is decided by a user's sight-line reading device 17 so that the level information of the user's interests in the information can be acquired, and which information leads to what kind of evaluation is decided by a user's evaluation reading device 15 so that the user's evaluation information on the information can be acquired. Thus, it is possible to select and present proper information to the user from an information to be provided data base based on the user profile, the level information of the user's interests, and the user's evaluation information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information providing apparatus and method and an information providing program for displaying an advertisement suitable for the user or providing the user with appropriate information when searching for something. More specifically, in a client device, which is a client computer connected to each other via a network such as the Internet, and a user preference information providing device, which is a server computer, the user preference information providing device has a client An information providing apparatus and method for acquiring user information from an apparatus, transmitting information suitable for the user to the client apparatus via a network based on the acquired user information, and providing the information to the user, and a recording medium recording an information providing program. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when obtaining information provided by a server computer via the Internet or the like,
In particular, when a user obtains information of interest, the information provider generally obtains the user's interest using input information only by operating the keyboard or mouse of the user. In general, the same user is estimated by an information provider by judging from input information by operating the user's keyboard or mouse, or by specifying a browser used by the user based on the value of Cookie. Met. In addition, in terms of how to provide advertisement information that the user may be interested in, search engines that provide directory services on the Internet correspond to the category of the directory clicked by the user based on the category. Advertising has been made possible.

[0003]

In the above-mentioned conventional method, information effective for providing advertisements such as a user's gender, age, body type, favorite clothes, and the like, and what is the user's favorite information are. There is a problem that it is not possible to obtain the information unless the user inputs the information with a mouse or a keyboard.

[0004] Further, it has not been possible to naturally know what profile (sex, age, body shape, favorite clothes) many Internet users and information terminal device users have. There is a problem that the user's interest in the field can only be known through the user's mouse click or keyboard operation.

[0005] In addition, as to how much the user is interested in information on the client computer, the server can only estimate from information input by the user's mouse or keyboard operation.
There has been a problem that it is not possible to naturally measure how much the user is actually interested.

On the other hand, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 10-66678, an input operation or the like is realized by detecting a user's line of sight on a computer screen. However, in such a method, the user prefers to see what kind of evaluation the information on the client computer of interest is, for example, how interested he is in the information. There was a problem that it was not possible to know whether they were watching or hating.

[0007] The present invention has been made in view of the above,
The purpose is to obtain the user's profile including gender and age, the degree of interest of the user in the information, and the evaluation information from the user's appearance, gaze, facial expression, and behavior, and apply the information to the user based on the information. To provide an information providing apparatus and method for selecting and providing appropriate information and a recording medium on which an information providing program is recorded.

[0008]

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information providing apparatus for providing appropriate information to a user, wherein a user profile including a user's age and gender is provided. Profile acquisition means for acquiring, interest determination means for determining how much information the user is interested in the presented information, and interest degree information for the information, and information presented by the user Evaluation determining means for determining which type of information is evaluated and obtaining evaluation information for the information; a provided information database storing the information; the user profile; Information presenting means for selecting and presenting appropriate information to the user based on the degree information and the evaluation information from the provided information database. It is the gist of.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a user profile including a user's age and gender is obtained, and it is determined whether the user is interested in which of the presented information and how much. To obtain information on the degree of interest in the information, and to determine what kind of information the user has given to the presented information,
The user obtains evaluation information for the information and selects and presents appropriate information to the user based on the obtained user profile, degree of interest information and evaluation information for each information from the provided information database. There is no need to input profile information, etc., and by using the user's eyes and facial expressions as interest level information and evaluation information, information suitable for the user can be accurately presented without clicking the mouse. And the usability can be significantly improved.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in a client device and a user preference information providing device connected to each other via a network, the user preference information providing device acquires user information from the client device via the network. An information providing device that transmits information appropriate for the user to the client device via the network based on the obtained user information and provides the user with the information. The client device obtains a user profile including the age and gender of the user. Profile acquisition means, interest determination means for determining how much information the user is interested in the presented information, and obtaining degree of interest information for the information; and What kind of information is evaluated and what kind of information is evaluated Evaluation determining means for obtaining evaluation information; information transmitting means for transmitting the user profile, degree of interest in information and evaluation information to the user preference information providing apparatus via a network; and information transmitted from the user preference information providing apparatus. Information display means for receiving and displaying incoming information, the user preference information providing device comprises: a provided information database storing information; the user profile transmitted from the client device; Information selection transmission for receiving the degree information and the evaluation information, selecting information appropriate for the user from the provided information database based on the user profile, the degree of interest in the information and the evaluation information, and transmitting the information to the client device via the network. And the means.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the client device obtains a user profile including the age and gender of the user and determines whether the user is interested in any of the presented information. To determine the degree of interest in the information, and to determine what kind of information the user has given to which of the presented information, to obtain evaluation information for the information,
The acquired user profile, degree of interest information and evaluation information for the information are transmitted to the user preference information providing device via the network, and the user preference information provision device transmits the user profile and interest for the information transmitted from the client device. Receiving the degree information and the evaluation information of the user, selecting information appropriate for the user from the provided information database based on the user profile, the degree of interest in the information and the evaluation information, transmitting the information to the client device via the network, The device receives and displays the information transmitted from the user preference information providing device, so the user does not need to input his / her own profile information, etc. To use as information Ri, without having to click the mouse,
Information suitable for the user can be accurately presented, and usability can be significantly improved.

Further, the present invention according to claim 3 provides the invention according to claim 1.
3. The invention according to claim 2, wherein the profile acquisition unit is an imaging unit that captures an image of a user, a cutout unit that cuts out the captured image of the user into images of a face portion, a hairstyle portion, an upper body portion, and a lower body portion, and the cutout portions. Comparing means for comparing the image of each with a predetermined reference image,
In addition, the gist of the present invention is to include a determination unit that determines the age, sex, body shape, hairstyle, and clothes of the user based on the comparison result and outputs the determined user profile.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, a user is imaged, and the image of the imaged user is cut out into images of a face portion, a hairstyle portion, an upper body portion, and a lower body portion. Is compared with each predetermined reference image, and based on the comparison result, the user's age, gender, body shape, hairstyle, and clothing are determined, and the user inputs his / her own profile information and the like in order to output the user profile. Therefore, it is possible to accurately present information suitable for the user, and the usability can be significantly improved.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first, second or third aspect of the present invention, the interest determining means reads the user's line of sight, and the information which the user is looking at by the read line of sight. , A time measuring means for measuring an observation time during which the user is looking at the specified information, and performing the time measuring process for each of the information specified by the specifying means. The gist of the present invention is to have an interest level output unit that measures time and outputs the observation time for each piece of information as interest level information for each piece of information.

According to the present invention, the user's line of sight is read, the information that the user is looking at is specified by the read line of sight, and the observation time during which the user is viewing the specified information is determined. Measure, perform this time measurement process for each of the specified information, measure the observation time for each information, and click the mouse to output the observation time for each information as degree of interest information for each information Even without doing so, information suitable for the user can be accurately presented based on the user's line-of-sight information used as the degree of interest information, and the usability can be significantly improved.

Further, the present invention described in claim 5 is based on claim 1.
5. The invention according to claim 4, wherein the evaluation determining unit captures an image of the user, a facial expression analyzing unit that analyzes a facial expression of the user from the captured facial image of the user, and performs the analysis. Means for determining what kind of evaluation the user is performing on the information based on the facial expression, and evaluation evaluation means for facial expression to obtain evaluation information based on the facial expression for the information; and a user based on the body image of the user taken by the imaging means. Motion analysis means for analyzing the body movement of
Means for determining what kind of evaluation the user is performing on the information based on the analyzed body movement, and obtaining evaluation information based on the body movement for the information; Voice detection means for detecting the detected voice, voice recognition means for recognizing the detected voice,
A voice analysis means for analyzing the recognized voice, and a voice evaluation for determining what kind of evaluation the user is performing on the information based on the analyzed voice and obtaining a voice evaluation information for the information The gist of the present invention is to have means and comprehensive evaluation determining means for comprehensively determining the evaluation information based on the expression, the evaluation information based on the movement of the body, and the evaluation information based on the voice, and acquiring the evaluation information of the user for the information.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the user is imaged, and the facial expression of the user is analyzed from the captured facial image of the user. Determine whether you are performing an evaluation,
Obtaining evaluation information by a facial expression for the information, analyzing the movement of the user's body from the captured user's body image,
Based on the analyzed body movements, it is determined what kind of evaluation the user is performing on the information, the evaluation information based on the body movements on the information is obtained, and the user's voice is detected. Recognize the voice, analyze the recognized voice, determine what evaluation the user is performing on the information based on the analyzed voice, and obtain voice evaluation information on the information. Comprehensively evaluates the evaluation information based on facial expressions, evaluation information based on body movements, and evaluation information based on voice, and uses the user's facial expressions, movements, voices, etc. as evaluation information to obtain user evaluation information for the information By doing so, it is possible to accurately present information suitable for the user without clicking the mouse, and the usability can be significantly improved.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information providing method for providing appropriate information to a user.
Obtain a user profile including gender, determine how much of the presented information the user is interested in, and obtain information on the degree of interest in the information. Determine what kind of evaluation is performed on which information, obtain evaluation information for the information, store the information in a provision information database, and store the user profile, degree of interest information for each information, and The gist is to select and present appropriate information to the user from the provided information database based on the evaluation information.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, a user profile including the age and gender of the user is obtained, and it is determined whether the user is interested in which of the presented information and how much. To obtain information on the degree of interest in the information, and to determine what kind of information the user has given to the presented information,
The user obtains evaluation information for the information and selects and presents appropriate information to the user based on the obtained user profile, degree of interest information and evaluation information for each information from the provided information database. There is no need to input profile information, etc., and by using the user's eyes and facial expressions as interest level information and evaluation information, information suitable for the user can be accurately presented without clicking the mouse. And the usability can be significantly improved.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in a client device and a user preference information providing device connected to each other via a network, the user preference information providing device acquires user information from the client device via the network, and An information providing method for transmitting information appropriate to a user to a client device via a network based on the obtained user information and providing the information to the user, wherein the client device acquires a user profile including the age and gender of the user, Determines the degree of interest in which information of the presented information, how much interest in the information is obtained, and the user evaluates what information of the presented information The user profile The degree of interest in the information and the evaluation information are transmitted to the user preference information providing apparatus via the network, and the information transmitted from the user preference information providing apparatus is received and displayed. Is stored in the provision information database, and the user profile transmitted from the client device, the degree of interest information and the evaluation information are received, and the user profile, the degree of interest in the information and the user are evaluated based on the evaluation information. The point is to select appropriate information from the provided information database and transmit it to the client device via the network.

According to the present invention, the client device acquires a user profile including the age and gender of the user, and determines whether or not the user is interested in any of the presented information. To determine the degree of interest in the information, and to determine what kind of information the user has given to which of the presented information, to obtain evaluation information for the information,
The acquired user profile, degree of interest information and evaluation information for the information are transmitted to the user preference information providing device via the network, and the user preference information provision device transmits the user profile and interest for the information transmitted from the client device. Receiving the degree information and the evaluation information of the user, selecting information appropriate for the user from the provided information database based on the user profile, the degree of interest in the information and the evaluation information, transmitting the information to the client device via the network, The device receives and displays the information transmitted from the user preference information providing device, so the user does not need to input his / her own profile information, etc. To use as information Ri, without having to click the mouse,
Information suitable for the user can be accurately presented, and usability can be significantly improved.

The present invention described in claim 8 provides the present invention according to claim 6.
In the invention according to the seventh aspect, the profile acquisition process captures an image of a user, cuts out the captured image of the user into images of a face portion, a hairstyle portion, an upper body portion, and a lower body portion. The gist of the present invention is to compare the user's age, gender, body shape, hairstyle, and clothes based on the comparison result and output the user profile.

According to the present invention, an image of the user is taken, and the image of the taken user is cut out into images of a face portion, a hairstyle portion, an upper body portion, and a lower body portion, and the image of each cut out portion is taken out. Is compared with each predetermined reference image, and based on the comparison result, the user's age, gender, body shape, hairstyle, and clothing are determined, and the user inputs his / her own profile information and the like in order to output the user profile. Therefore, it is possible to accurately present information suitable for the user, and the usability can be significantly improved.

Further, the present invention described in claim 9 is the same as claim 6.
9. The invention according to claim 8, wherein the interest determination process reads a line of sight of the user, specifies information that the user is looking at based on the read line of sight, and allows the user to view the specified information. Measuring the observation time that is, performing this time measurement process for each of the identified information,
The gist is to measure the observation time for each piece of information and to output the observation time for each piece of information as the degree of interest for each piece of information.

According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, the user's line of sight is read, the information that the user is looking at is specified by the read line of sight, and the observation time during which the user is viewing the specified information is determined. Measure, perform this time measurement process for each of the specified information, measure the observation time for each information, and click the mouse to output the observation time for each information as degree of interest information for each information Even without doing so, information suitable for the user can be accurately presented based on the user's line-of-sight information used as the degree of interest information, and the usability can be significantly improved.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to any one of the sixth to ninth aspects, the evaluation determining process includes capturing an image of a user, and detecting the user's face image from the captured user's face image. Analyzing the facial expression, determining what kind of evaluation the user is performing on the information based on the analyzed facial expression, obtaining evaluation information based on the facial expression for the information, and obtaining the user's Analyze the body movement, determine what kind of evaluation the user is performing on the information based on the analyzed body movement, obtain evaluation information based on the body movement on the information, and output the user's voice. Detecting, recognizing the detected voice, analyzing the recognized voice, determining what kind of evaluation the user has performed on the information based on the analyzed voice, It acquires evaluation information by voice for the evaluation information by the expression, comprehensively judging the evaluation information by the evaluation information and audio by body movements, and be required to acquire the evaluation information of the user for information.

According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, the user is imaged, the facial expression of the user is analyzed from the captured facial image of the user, and based on the analyzed facial expression, the user It is determined whether or not the evaluation is being performed, the evaluation information based on the facial expression with respect to the information is acquired, and the movement of the user's body is analyzed from the captured body image of the user. Judging what kind of evaluation is being performed on the information, obtaining evaluation information based on the movement of the body with respect to the information, detecting the user's voice, recognizing the detected voice, and analyzing the recognized voice. Based on the analyzed voice, it is determined what kind of evaluation the user is performing on the information, and the voice-based evaluation information on the information is obtained. By comprehensively judging evaluation information, evaluation information based on body movements, and evaluation information based on voice, and using the user's expression, movement, voice, etc. as evaluation information to obtain the user's evaluation information for the information, The information suitable for the user can be accurately presented without clicking the mouse, and the usability can be significantly improved.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording medium on which an information providing program for providing appropriate information to a user is recorded, wherein a user profile including the age and gender of the user is obtained and presented by the user. Determine the degree of interest in which information among the given information, obtain the degree of interest in the information, and evaluate what kind of information the user presented Is determined, and evaluation information for the information is obtained,
Information is stored in a provision information database, and an information provision program for selecting and presenting information appropriate for a user from the provision information database based on the user profile, degree of interest information and evaluation information for each information is recorded on a recording medium. It shall be recorded.

According to the eleventh aspect of the present invention, a user profile including a user's age and gender is acquired, and it is determined whether or not the user is interested in which of the presented information. To obtain information on the degree of interest in the information, further determine what kind of information the user has presented to the information, and obtain evaluation information for the information. The information providing program for selecting and presenting appropriate information to the user from the provided information database based on the obtained user profile, degree of interest information and evaluation information for each information is recorded on the recording medium. Thus, its distribution can be improved.

[0030]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an information providing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the information providing apparatus shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of client apparatuses 1 are connected to a network 3 such as the Internet.
Is connected to the user preference information providing device 5 via the.
In the present embodiment, as an example, a case will be described in which a system that selects and presents an appropriate advertisement to a user is configured. However, the client device 1 is used by a user to allow a user to browse a Web page or the like. Information transmitted from the user preference information providing device 5 via the network 3, that is, an advertisement is displayed and presented to the user. Further, the user preference information providing device 5 stores information to be provided to the user, and the user preference information acquired from the client device 1, specifically, the user profile transmitted from the client device 1 and interest in the information. Is received, and information appropriate for the user, that is, an advertisement is selected and transmitted to the client device 1 in order to present the selected information to the user based on the received information.

As shown in detail in FIG. 2, the client device 1 includes a client computer 11, a user profile reading device 13, and a user evaluation reading device 1.
5 and the user's line-of-sight reading device 17. The user profile reading device 13 includes an age estimating device 31, a gender estimating device 33, and a body / hairstyle reading device 3.
5 and a reading device 37 such as clothes. The user evaluation reading device 15 includes a facial expression reading device 41, a motion reading device 43, and a voice recognition device 45.

The user profile reading device 13
It constitutes profile acquisition means for acquiring a user profile including a user's age, gender, body shape, hairstyle, clothes, etc., and the user profile reading device 1
The age estimating device 31 and the gender estimating device 3 that constitute 3
3, body / hairstyle reader 35, clothing and other readers 37
More specifically, an imaging unit such as a camera for imaging a user, and a cutout unit for cutting out a face part, a hairstyle part, an upper body part, and a lower body part from the captured user image using, for example, color information. Comparing means for comparing the extracted image of each part with a predetermined reference image; and based on the comparison result, the user's age, gender,
Determination means for determining a body shape, a hairstyle, clothes, and the like; the determined age of the user is output as a user profile from the age estimation device 31; and the gender is output as a user profile from the gender estimation device 33. The hairstyle is output from the body / hairstyle reading device 35 as a user profile, and clothes and the like are output as a user profile from the reading device 37 such as clothes.

The processing for extracting face information and determining the gender and age of the user from the face information is described in, for example, the document "Miwa Nishitani, Sakiko Yoshikawa, Shigeru Akamatsu: Exploring the Features of Average Faces—Specificity, Attractiveness, Gender Difference From the viewpoint of "", The 63rd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Psychological Association, p.484, or the document "DIPerrett,
KJLee, I.Penton-Voak, D.Rowland, S.Yoshikawa, DMBu
rt, SPHenzi, D. Castles and S. Akamatsu, “Effects of
sexualdimorphism onfacial attractiveness ", Nature,
Vol.394, No.6696, pp.884-887, Aug, 1998 ”, an average face for each Japanese gender and age is created in advance and registered in the face database. Then, the difference between the user's face and the created average face for each sex and age can be scored and registered as a user profile.

As for the judgment of the hairstyle, several typical hairstyles (Japanese hair female, Japanese hair male, long straight, long sauvage, long curl, bob, short hair) similar to the above-mentioned face are determined in advance. Such)
And prepare a template of hair color. And
It is also possible to score each user's hairstyle close to which feature of the template and register it as a user profile.

Further, for the judgment of the upper body and the lower body, a template of simple clothes (whether trousers or a skirt, whether they are wearing a tie, whether they are a suit, etc.) is prepared in advance, and it is judged which one is closer. It can be done by doing. Further, the color information of the clothes is registered as the favorite color information regarding the clothes of the user. Further, in the determination of the user's gender, it is also possible to detect the user's voice with a microphone or the like and perform a frequency analysis or the like on the detected voice, and this is obtained by the frequency analysis of the user's voice. The gender information of the user can be determined more accurately by performing the determination in consideration of the above determination.

The body shape / hairstyle reader 35 further has a weight sensor for determining the weight of the user and the like, and utilizes the weight of the user detected by the weight sensor to obtain the body shape / hairstyle.
The user's body shape determined by the hairstyle reader 35 may be corrected.

The user evaluation reading device 15 determines what kind of information the user has presented from the information presented by the user preference information providing device 5 and what kind of information the user gives. The evaluation means determines whether the user is interested in, dislikes, or likes the information, and constitutes an evaluation determination unit that obtains evaluation information for the information. The facial expression reading device 41, the motion reading device 43, and the voice recognition device 45 are more specifically composed of image capturing means such as a camera for capturing an image of the user, and facial expression analysis for analyzing the facial expression of the user from the captured facial image of the user. Means and what kind of evaluation the user is performing on the information based on the analyzed facial expression; Evaluation determining means based on a facial expression for obtaining a report, motion analyzing means for analyzing the user's body movement from the user's body image captured by the image capturing means, and It is determined whether such an evaluation is performed, evaluation determination means by body movement to obtain evaluation information by body movement with respect to the information, voice detection means to detect the voice of the user,
Voice recognition means for recognizing the detected voice, voice analysis means for analyzing the recognized voice, and determining what kind of evaluation the user has performed on the information based on the analyzed voice; Evaluation information by voice to obtain evaluation information by voice to the user; evaluation information by facial expression for the information obtained by the evaluation determination by facial expression is output from the facial expression reading device 41; The evaluation information based on the movement of the body with respect to the information obtained in the step is output from the motion reading device 43, and the evaluation information based on the voice with respect to the information obtained by the evaluation determining unit based on the voice is output from the voice recognition device 45. I have. In the analysis of the movement of the user's body from the body image of the user, the movement that the user has performed some input operation can be determined.

Further, the user's line-of-sight reading device 17 constitutes an interest judging means for judging how much of the presented information the user is interested in, and acquiring information on the degree of interest in the information. More specifically, the user's line of sight is read, for example,
Gaze reading means configured by applying the non-contact gaze measuring device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 882 or Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-66678, and identification means for identifying information that a user is looking at with the read gaze. A time measuring means for measuring an observation time during which the user is looking at the specified information, and performing this time measurement process for each information specified by the specifying means, and measuring an observation time for each information; And an interest level output means for outputting the observation time for each information as interest level information for each information.

The specifying means converts the user's line of sight read by the line of sight reading means into coordinates on the client computer 11, and the information which the user sees based on the correspondence between the coordinates and the displayed contents. Is specified.

The client computer 11 evaluates the user profile output from the user profile reading device 13, the degree of interest in the information output from the user visual line reading device 17, and the information output from the user evaluation reading device 15. The information is transmitted to the user preference information providing device 5 via the network 3, and the information transmitted from the user preference information providing device 5 is received and displayed.

As shown in detail in FIG. 3, the user preference information providing device 5 comprises a provided information database 51, a user personal history database 53, an all user provided information evaluation database 55, and a provided information selecting device 57. I have.

The provided information database 51 is a database that stores information to be provided to the user.

The user personal history database 53 is a database that stores and manages user profiles, degree of interest in information, and evaluation information transmitted from the client device 1 as personal history information of each user. FIG. 10 shows the history data for the advertisement classification for each user when the advertisement is targeted as the provided information.

All user provided information evaluation database 55
Is a database that accumulates and manages the evaluations of all users for the provided information. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a database that stores evaluations of all users for each advertisement when the advertisement is targeted as provided information. In the figure, the vertical columns indicate advertisements 1, 2, 3,..., N, the horizontal columns indicate age, gender, clothing, hairstyle, etc., and the corresponding portions indicate the number of users for all users. Is what it is.

The provided information selecting device 57 selects information appropriate for the user from the provided information database 51 based on the user profile, the degree of interest in information, and the evaluation information transmitted from the client device 1, and via the network 3. And sends it to the client device 1 for presentation to the user. For example, when it is determined that the user is a woman in her twenties based on the user profile, advertisement information (such as clothes information of young women, accessories, advertisements for wedding halls, etc.) which such women are likely to provide is provided. The information can be selected from the information database 51 and presented. Then, if the user is interested in the presented advertisement, the expression changes when the user clicks on the mouse or looks at the advertisement information, so that more detailed information is presented according to the click or the change in the expression, Furthermore, it is also possible to switch to the purchase mode. This is because, for example, a conventional system can only present advertisements according to the category of the directory selected by the user, while acquiring a user profile,
The user can select information appropriate for the user before inputting or selecting the information, and present it to the user.

Since the user preference information providing device 5 acquires and manages user profiles from a plurality of client devices 1, it is necessary to feed back the interests of other users having the same profile to another user. Is also possible.

Next, with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 4, the operation of the information providing apparatus configured as described above, in particular, the user profile, the degree of interest in the information, and the evaluation information in the user preference information providing apparatus 5 will be described. The operation to be acquired will be described.

First, upon receiving a request from the user (step S11), the client device 1 obtains a user profile including the user's age, gender, body shape, weight, hairstyle, and clothes with the user profile reading device 13, and The user evaluation reading device 15 comprehensively determines the evaluation information based on the expression of the user, the evaluation information based on the movement of the body, and the evaluation information based on the voice to obtain the evaluation information for the information. (Step S13), and transmits the user profile, the interest level information and the evaluation information to the user preference information providing device 5 via the network 3 together with the user request and the user ID. Yes (step S15 . FIG. 5 shows an example of data transmitted from the client device 1 to the user preference information providing device 5 in this case. In the example shown in FIG. 5, “female, 20s, light-colored casual wear, piercing” is used as the user profile, “attention to advertisement 1” is used as the degree of interest in the information, and “evaluation information” is used as the evaluation information for the information. "I am interested in advertisement 1" together with "user 1" as the user ID from the client device 1 to the user preference information providing device 5
Has been sent to.

When receiving the above information, the user preference information providing device 5 selects the provided information suitable for the user from the provided information from the provided information database 51 (step S1).
7), the selected provided information is transmitted from the user preference information providing device 5 to the client device 1 (step S1).
9). Upon receiving the provided information, the client device 1 displays the provided information on the display of the client computer 11 (step S21).

When the provided information is displayed on the client device 1, it is determined whether or not the user has clicked the provided information (step S23). When the user clicks, the click information is transmitted to the user preference information providing device 5 (step S43), and the process ends.

If it is determined in step S23 that the user does not click, the user's gaze reading device 17 first determines the position of the user's gaze on the screen in order to determine what information the user is gazing at. Is detected (step S25). It is determined whether or not the user is gazing at the specific information based on the detection of the line of sight by the user line of sight reader 17 (step S27). When the user is gazing at the specific information, the information which the user pays attention to is derived based on the correspondence between the user's gaze position and the display content (step S29). Then, it is determined whether or not the focused information has meaningful contents, that is, whether or not the focused information is meaningless information such as a blank sheet (step S3).
1) If the information is meaningful, the information of interest is transmitted from the client computer 11 of the client device 1 to the user preference information providing device 5 via the network 3 (step S33).

Next, in the client device 1, the expression of the user is read by the expression reading device 41 of the user evaluation reading device 15 (step S35), and the read expression of the user is compared with the initial expression of the user. The user evaluation reading device 15 determines whether or not the expression has changed (step S37). As a result of this determination, if there is a change in the expression of the user, the evaluation information for the information such as whether or not the user is interested in the data together with the data transmitted to the user preference information providing device 5 is used as the user preference information. The information is transmitted to the providing device 5 (step S39). At this time, it is also possible to transmit some command to the user preference information providing device 5 according to the expression, operation, voice, and the like designated.

When the user preference information providing device 5 receives a user profile, degree of interest in user information, and evaluation information from the client device 1,
The information is totaled as shown in FIG. 6, for example, and stored in the database (step S41). Then, the process returns to step S17, and the same operation is repeated. In the data example shown in FIG. 6, for example, the user whose user ID is “user 1” has information such as female, 20s, long hair, light-colored casual wear, piercings, and advertisement 1 that are interested in user preference information. This is obtained by the providing device 5.

Next, referring to the flowchart shown in FIG. 7, the presentation information to the user based on the user profile acquired by the user preference information providing device 5, the degree of interest in the user information and the evaluation information, that is, In the embodiment, a process of determining an advertisement to be presented will be described.

First, the user preference information providing device 5 receives the user information, that is, the user profile, the degree of interest in the user information, and the evaluation information from the client device 1 as described above (step S51).
Build a database of these information (step S5)
3). In this database construction, considering an example of displaying advertisement information, as a database for selecting an appropriate advertisement, (1) an advertisement database provided by an advertisement company, (2) advertisements of all users It is preferable to provide three databases: an evaluation database, and (3) a personal advertisement history database of each user. In the advertisement database, an advertisement company sets a profile of a user who is a target of a product. For example, in the case of a tie advertisement, a profile is specified such as a company employee in his 20s or older. Further, the advertisement evaluation database of all users accumulates data indicating what profile user has been interested in each advertisement and what profile user has not been interested. For example, data as shown in FIG. 9 is stored. Further, the personal advertisement history database of each user accumulates data indicating what kind of advertisement each individual has been interested in in the past, for example, as shown in FIG.

Then, in the user preference information providing device 5,
As shown in FIG. 5, it is determined from the data transmitted from the client device 1 whether or not the user is viewing the advertisement information. It is stored in the user's advertisement evaluation database and each user's personal advertisement history database.

Then, the advertisement evaluation value x1 based on the user information is calculated in the advertisement evaluation database of all users (step S55), and the advertisement based on the user information is obtained from the advertisement provision conditions by the advertising company in the advertisement evaluation database of all users. The evaluation value x2 is calculated (step S57), and the advertisement evaluation value x3 based on the user information is calculated from the personal advertisement history database of each user (step S59).

Then, the obtained advertisement evaluation value x
Based on the advertising company conditions of 1, x2 and x3, data of the entire user, and personal data, the evaluation values y1,... Yn of the advertisement suitable for the user information are calculated from the following formula (step S).
61).

Y = ax1 + bx2 + cx3 Here, abc is a weight parameter, and the weight of each parameter can be changed according to the situation.

The user preference information providing device 5 selects the advertisement having the largest evaluation value among the evaluation values y of the advertisement thus calculated, that is, the advertisement having the optimum evaluation value as the advertisement suitable for the user (step S63). ), The selected advertisement is transmitted to the client device 1 and presented. When the user performs an action such as clicking on the advertisement presented in this way, the data is again transmitted to the user preference information providing device 5.
Send to

Next, with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG. 8, a process of constructing an advertisement evaluation database to which the degree of interest of the user is added will be described.

In FIG. 8, it is first determined whether or not the user is watching an advertisement (step S71). If the user is watching the advertisement, the user, such as the age and gender of the user, is displayed for each advertisement. An evaluation value is determined in accordance with the information and the evaluation, and thereby a user advertisement evaluation database as shown in FIG. 9 is constructed (step S73). In addition, an evaluation value of which classification of advertisement interests each user is determined, and thereby a personal advertisement history database as shown in FIG. 10 is constructed (step S75).

As described above, the user preference information providing device 5 accumulates evaluations for advertisements of many users, and can select an advertisement suitable for the next user based on the accumulated evaluation information. . It is also possible to display an advertisement that is popular with a user having a similar profile to another user.

The information providing apparatus according to the present embodiment not only targets advertisement information, but also searches a user profile as additional information when a user searches for target information using, for example, an online shopping or search engine. By adding the information selected by the same user profile to the search scoring, the result that is popular with the person having the similar profile can be applied to the top. Since the user cannot always enter all the information and conditions that he or she likes, by determining the information that the user has in the profile attribute, such as gender and age,
A search for a user can be supported.

The information providing apparatus according to the present embodiment includes, for example, a system for measuring the presentation of interests of a user based on profile data of the user, a system for dynamically changing advertisements based on profile data of the user, and a degree of interest of the user. A system that dynamically changes advertisements based on search, a system that changes the scoring of search results based on the degree of user interest, a system that dynamically changes the display order of pages based on user profile data, a search engine The user information is added to the calculation of the score, and the system can be applied to a system in which, for example, when a woman searches for a page frequently clicked by a woman, the page is displayed at the top.

The processing procedure of the information providing method of the above embodiment is recorded as a program on a recording medium, and this recording medium is incorporated in a computer system, and the program recorded on the recording medium is downloaded or installed in the computer system. By operating a computer system with the program, it is possible to function as an information providing apparatus for executing the information providing method. Of course, by using such a recording medium, the distribution of the information can be enhanced. You can do it.

[0067]

As described above, according to the present invention,
User profile, interest level information,
Furthermore, the user obtains evaluation information for the information, and selects and presents appropriate information to the user from the provided information database based on the obtained user profile, degree of interest information for each information and the evaluation information. There is no need to input profile information, etc., and by using the user's eyes and facial expressions as interest level information and evaluation information, information suitable for the user can be accurately presented without clicking the mouse. And the usability can be significantly improved.

Also, according to the present invention, an image of a user is cut out into images of a face portion, a hairstyle portion, an upper body portion, and a lower body portion, and the image of each portion is compared with a predetermined reference image to compare the image of the user. Age, gender, body shape, hairstyle, clothes are determined and output as a user profile, so that the user does not need to input his own profile information and the like, and can appropriately present information suitable for the user, The usability can be significantly improved.

Further, according to the present invention, the user's line of sight is read, the information that the user is looking at is specified, the observation time that the user is looking at the information is measured, and the observation time for each piece of information is measured. Is output as degree of interest information for the user, so that information suitable for the user can be accurately presented based on the user's line of sight information used as the degree of interest information without having to click the mouse. Can be improved.

According to the present invention, the user's facial expression is analyzed from a face image of the user, the movement of the user's body is analyzed from the body image, and what kind of evaluation is performed on the information. Judgment, obtain evaluation information based on facial expressions and body movements, recognize and analyze the user's voice, and determine what kind of evaluation is performed on the information based on the analyzed voice. , The voice evaluation information is obtained, the evaluation information based on the obtained facial expression, the evaluation information based on the movement of the body, and the evaluation information based on the voice are comprehensively determined, and the user evaluation information on the information is obtained. , Movement, voice, etc. can be used as the evaluation information, so that information suitable for the user can be accurately presented without clicking the mouse, and the usability is significantly improved. Door can be.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an information providing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of a client device used in the information providing device shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of a user preference information providing device used in the information providing device shown in FIG. 1;

4 is a flowchart showing an operation of the information providing apparatus shown in FIG. 1, particularly an operation of the user preference information providing apparatus for acquiring a user profile, degree of interest in information, and evaluation information.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of data transmitted from a client device to a user preference information providing device in the information providing device shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of data received by a user preference information providing device from a plurality of client devices in the information providing device illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 shows a process of determining an advertisement that is presentation information for a user based on a user profile acquired by the user preference information providing device of the information providing device shown in FIG. 1, degree of interest in user information, and evaluation information. It is a flowchart shown.

8 is a flowchart showing a process of constructing an advertisement evaluation database to which a degree of interest of a user is added in the information providing device shown in FIG.

9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a user's advertisement evaluation database in the information providing apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a personal advertisement history database in the information providing device shown in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 client device 5 user preference information providing device 11 client computer 13 user profile reading device 15 user evaluation reading device 17 user gaze reading device 31 age estimation device 33 gender estimation device 35 body / hairstyle reading device 37 clothing and other reading device 41 expression reading device 43 operation reading device 45 voice recognition device 51 provided information database 53 user personal history database 55 all user provided information evaluation database 57 provided information selection device

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. An information providing apparatus for providing appropriate information to a user, comprising: a profile obtaining unit configured to obtain a user profile including a user's age and gender; An interest determining means for determining whether the user is interested in the information and obtaining information on the degree of interest in the information; and determining which information of the information presented by the user is being evaluated, Evaluation determination means for acquiring evaluation information for the provided information database; and information selected from the provided information database based on the user profile, information on the degree of interest in each piece of information, and evaluation information. An information providing apparatus, comprising: an information selection / presentation unit that presents and presents information. 2. A client device and a user preference information providing device connected to each other via a network, wherein the user preference information providing device obtains user information from the client device via the network, and provides the user with a user based on the acquired user information. An information providing apparatus for transmitting appropriate information to a client device via a network and providing the user with the information, wherein the client device includes: a profile acquisition unit configured to acquire a user profile including a user's age and gender; Interest determination means for determining how much information is interested in which information, and obtaining information on the degree of interest in the information; Assessment to obtain evaluation information for the information. Means, information transmitting means for transmitting the user profile, degree-of-interest information and evaluation information to the user preference information providing device via a network, and receiving and displaying information transmitted from the user preference information providing device. The user preference information providing device receives the provided information database storing information, the user profile transmitted from the client device, the degree of interest in information, and the evaluation information. And information selecting and transmitting means for selecting information appropriate for the user from the provided information database based on the user profile, the degree of interest in the information, and the evaluation information, and transmitting the selected information to the client device via the network. Information providing device. 3. The profile acquisition unit includes: an imaging unit that images a user; a cutout unit that cuts out the imaged user image into a face portion, a hairstyle portion, an upper body portion, and a lower body portion; and an image of each cut portion. Is compared with each predetermined reference image, and a determination unit that determines the age, sex, body shape, hairstyle, and clothes of the user based on the comparison result and outputs the determined user profile. The information providing device according to claim 1. 4. The interest determining means includes: a line-of-sight reading unit that reads a line of sight of a user; a specifying unit that specifies information that the user is looking at based on the line of sight read; and an observation time during which the user is viewing the specified information. Time measuring means for measuring the information, and the time measuring process is performed for each piece of information specified by the specifying means to measure the observation time for each piece of information, and the observation time for each piece of information is the degree of interest information for each piece of information. 4. The information providing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an interest degree output means for outputting the information as an output. 5. The evaluation determining unit includes: an image capturing unit that captures an image of a user; a facial expression analyzing unit that analyzes a facial expression of the user from the captured facial image of the user; Means for evaluating what kind of evaluation is being performed and obtaining evaluation information based on facial expressions for the information; and a motion analysis for analyzing the movement of the user's body from the user's body image captured by the image capturing means. Means, evaluation means by body movement to determine what evaluation the user is performing on the information based on the analyzed body movement, and obtain evaluation information by body movement on the information; Voice detection means for detecting a user's voice, voice recognition means for recognizing the detected voice, voice analysis means for analyzing the recognized voice, Voice evaluation determining means for determining what evaluation the user is performing on the information based on the obtained voice, and obtaining voice evaluation information on the information; evaluation information based on the facial expression; evaluation based on body movement 5. The information providing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: comprehensive evaluation determining means for comprehensively determining information and voice-based evaluation information and acquiring user evaluation information for the information. apparatus. 6. An information providing method for providing appropriate information to a user, comprising: acquiring a user profile including a user's age and gender; and the user is interested in which information among the presented information. Determine whether the user is interested in the information, obtain information on the degree of interest in the information, determine which type of information is being evaluated by the user, and obtain evaluation information on the information. Information stored in a provision information database, and information suitable for a user is selected from the provision information database based on the user profile, degree of interest information and evaluation information for each information, and presented. Delivery method. 7. A client device and a user preference information providing device connected to each other via a network, wherein the user preference information providing device acquires user information from the client device via the network, and provides the user with a user based on the acquired user information. An information providing method for transmitting appropriate information to a client device via a network and providing the user with the information, wherein the client device obtains a user profile including a user's age and gender, and obtains information from among the information presented by the user. The degree of interest in the information is determined, the degree of interest in the information is obtained, and the user evaluates which of the presented information is evaluated. To obtain evaluation information for the information, The matching information and the evaluation information are transmitted to the user preference information providing device via the network, the information transmitted from the user preference information providing device is received and displayed, and the user preference information providing device stores the information in the provided information database. Receiving the user profile, the degree-of-interest information about the information and the evaluation information transmitted from the client device, and information appropriate for the user based on the user profile, the degree-of-interest information about the information, and the evaluation information. Is selected from the provided information database and transmitted to the client device via the network. 8. The profile acquisition processing includes capturing an image of a user, extracting the captured image of the user into images of a face portion, a hairstyle portion, an upper body portion, and a lower body portion, and dividing the extracted image of each portion into a predetermined image. The information providing method according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the information is compared with the reference image of (1), and the age, sex, body shape, hairstyle, and clothes of the user are determined based on the comparison result and output as the user profile. 9. The interest judging process reads the user's line of sight, specifies the information that the user is looking at from the read line of sight, measures the observation time during which the user is viewing the specified information, Perform a time measurement process for each of the identified information, measure the observation time for each information,
8. An observation time for each information is output as degree of interest information for each information.
Or the information providing method described in 8. 10. The evaluation determining process includes capturing an image of a user, analyzing a facial expression of the user from the captured facial image of the user, and performing what kind of evaluation on the information based on the analyzed facial expression. Is determined, the evaluation information based on the facial expression for the information is obtained, the movement of the user's body is analyzed from the captured body image of the user, and based on the analyzed body movement, It is determined whether the evaluation is being performed, the evaluation information based on the movement of the body with respect to the information is obtained, the voice of the user is detected, the detected voice is recognized, the recognized voice is analyzed, and the analyzed voice is analyzed. Determine what kind of evaluation the user is performing on the basis of the information, obtain the evaluation information by voice for the information, and evaluate the information by the facial expression, The information providing method according to any one of claims 6 to 9, wherein the evaluation information and the evaluation information by voice are comprehensively determined, and the evaluation information of the user for the information is acquired. 11. A recording medium on which an information providing program for providing appropriate information to a user is recorded, wherein a user profile including a user's age and gender is obtained, The degree of interest in the information is determined by determining the degree of interest in the information, the degree of interest in the information is obtained, and the type of information evaluated by the user is determined. Obtaining evaluation information, storing the information in a provision information database, and selecting and presenting appropriate information to the user from the provision information database based on the user profile, degree of interest information for each information, and the evaluation information. A recording medium having recorded thereon an information providing program.