JP2002268781A - Information processor and method for processing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the load of a user to capture information by selecting an optimal method at the time of presenting automatically collected information under the consideration of the present and past situations. SOLUTION: A situation grasping part 105 grasps situations in which a user is put, and holds it as processable information. An information selecting part 106 selects the information obtained by an information receiving part 104 based on the situations of the user obtained by the situation grasping part 105. An information presenting method deciding part 107 decides what is an optimal presenting method for presenting the information obtained by the information receiving part 104 according to the situations of the user obtained by the situation grasping part 105. An information presenting part 109 actually presents the information selected by the information selecting part 106 to the user by the method decided by the information presenting method deciding part 107.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus using an electronic computer and a processing method therefor.
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus for automatically processing information and a processing method thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the advance of network technology using computers, huge information has been stored on huge networks such as the Internet. However, it is almost impossible for humans to cover them all. For this reason, a system for automatically collecting information on a network and automatically editing the information so that the information can be utilized has appeared. This is a mechanism in which a program that has roamed the network collects and sends appropriate information based on this information by inputting the information requested by the user in advance using a method such as a keyword. Often become.

In addition, when an electronic computer automatically collects information, a method of presenting the information to a user in a lump is often adopted. Also at this time, the presentation does not start unless there is an instruction from the user, but always exists in the cognitive space of the user, and when new information is acquired, a signature is presented and the user acquires this Is often presented for the first time when an operation is performed.

[0004]

In such a method of presenting information, the presentation starts or the method of presenting information is fixed regardless of whether the user is busy or not. Therefore, there is a problem that the more important information at that time is hidden. In addition, when the presented information requires interaction with the user, intervention of the operation is necessarily required to convey the intention of the user.

[0005] The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and a purpose thereof is to automatically collect information in consideration of the present and past situations where a user is located. An object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus and a processing method thereof, which reduce a burden on a user to acquire information by selecting a method most suitable for presenting information.

Another object is to formalize the content of the information to be presented, and to automatically generate a response that can be performed by the user using recognition of the situation where the user is located. This allows the user to respond according to the user's intention without explicitly starting the operation, and the information presentation progresses without forcing the response, thereby allowing the user to respond. An object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus and a processing method thereof that reduce the burden of operation.

[0007]

According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, an invention according to claim 1 comprises an information acquisition means for automatically collecting and acquiring information on a computer. An information editing unit for automatically editing and organizing information acquired by the information acquiring unit; an information transmitting unit for transmitting information created by the information editing unit; and receiving information transmitted by the information transmitting unit. Information receiving means, situation grasping means for grasping the situation of the user, information selecting means for automatically selecting information received by the information receiving means from information obtained by the situation grasping means, and the information Information for determining a method most suitable for automatically presenting the information to the user from the information received by the receiving means and the information obtained by the situation grasping means Display method determining means, information presenting means for presenting the information selected by the information selecting means to the user in the information presenting method determined by the information presenting method determining means, and information obtained by the situation grasping means. Determining the response desired by the user, proxy response generation means for generating a response, after the information is presented by the information presenting means, if there is no explicit response from the user for a certain period of time, A proxy response adopting unit for using the response generated by the proxy response generating unit instead of the user's response.

[0008] The invention described in claim 2 is the first invention.
In the invention described in the above, the situation grasping means is a device use situation grasping means for acquiring a current device use situation of a user, and an existing position for acquiring a current physical or virtual geographical location of the user. Situation obtaining means, a position of interest obtaining means for obtaining a physical or virtual geographical position that the user is currently paying attention to, and a position at which the user is currently detected by the state of interest obtaining means Time-of-interest status acquisition means for acquiring a time-of-interest for the device, device-usage-history grasping means for acquiring the user's past device-usage status, and acquiring the user's past physical or virtual geographical position An existing position history acquisition unit, an attention position history acquisition unit that acquires a physical or virtual geographical position that the user has paid attention to in the past, It is characterized in that it has a focus time history acquisition means for acquiring a focused time to position detected by the gravel acquisition means.

The invention described in claim 3 is the same as the invention in claim 2
In the invention described in the above, the information editing means proposes a specific action, and responds to the information in a format in which any one of at least one of a negative, an affirmative, or an ignorable answer can be made. It has a proposal type information generating means for automatically organizing and editing, and a response automatically generated by the proxy response generating means is any of negative, positive, or ignored.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information acquisition step of automatically collecting and acquiring information on a computer, and an information editing step of automatically editing and organizing the information acquired by the information acquisition step. Step, an information transmitting step of transmitting the information created by the information editing step, an information receiving step of receiving the information transmitted by the information transmitting step, a situation grasping step of grasping the situation of the user, An information selecting step of automatically selecting information received by the information receiving step from the information obtained by the situation grasping step, and information from the information received by the information receiving step and the information obtained by the situation grasping step. Information that determines the most likely way to automatically present that information to the user Presenting the information selected by the information presenting step, the information presenting step of presenting the information selected by the information selecting step to the user by the information presenting method determined by the information presenting method determining step, and the information obtained in the situation grasping step. Determining the response desired by the user, a proxy response generation step of generating a response, after the information is presented by the information presenting step, if there is no explicit response from the user for a certain period, A proxy response adopting step of using the response generated by the proxy response generating step instead of the user's response.

[0011] The invention described in claim 5 is the same as in claim 4.
In the invention described in the above, the situation grasping step is a device use situation grasping step of acquiring a user's current machine use situation, and an existing position of acquiring a user's current physical or virtual geographical position. A situation acquisition step, and a focused position situation acquisition step of acquiring a physical or virtual geographical location that the user is currently focusing on,
A time-of-interest status acquisition step in which a user acquires a time-of-interest at a position currently detected by the interest state-obtaining step, a device use history grasping step of acquiring a past device use status of the user, Location history acquisition step of acquiring a past physical or virtual geographical position of interest, and a focused position history acquisition step of acquiring a physical or virtual geographical location that the user has noticed in the past And an attention time history acquisition step of acquiring an attention time for a position detected by the user in the past in the attention history acquisition step.

[0012] The invention according to claim 6 is the same as the invention according to claim 5.
In the invention described in the above, the information editing step proposes a specific action, and responds to the information in a format in which any one of at least one of a negative, an affirmative, or an ignorable answer can be made. It has a proposal type information generation step of automatically organizing and editing, and the response automatically generated in the proxy response generation step is negative, positive,
Or, it is characterized by being either ignored.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording medium storing a program to be executed by a computer, wherein the information acquiring step automatically collects and acquires information; An information editing step of automatically editing and organizing the acquired information; an information transmitting step of transmitting information created by the information editing step; an information receiving step of receiving the information transmitted by the information transmitting step; Situation grasping step of grasping the situation of the person, information selection step of automatically selecting the information received by the information receiving step from the information obtained by the situation grasping step,
An information presenting method determining step of automatically determining a method suitable for presenting the information to the user automatically from the information received by the information receiving step and the information obtained by the situation grasping step; An information presenting step of presenting the information selected by the information selecting step to the user by the information presenting method determined by the information presenting method determining step; and a response desired by the user from the information obtained in the situation grasping step. Judge,
A proxy response generating step of generating a response, and using the response generated by the proxy response generating step if there is no explicit response from the user for a predetermined period after the information is presented by the information presenting step. A proxy response adopting step to be used instead of the response of the user.

The invention described in claim 8 is the same as the invention described in claim 7.
In the invention described in the above, the situation grasping step is a device use situation grasping step of acquiring a user's current machine use situation, and an existing position of acquiring a user's current physical or virtual geographical position. A situation acquisition step, and a focused position situation acquisition step of acquiring a physical or virtual geographical location that the user is currently focusing on,
A time-of-interest status acquisition step in which a user acquires a time-of-interest at a position currently detected by the interest state-obtaining step, a device use history grasping step of acquiring a past device use status of the user, Location history acquisition step of acquiring a past physical or virtual geographical position of interest, and a focused position history acquisition step of acquiring a physical or virtual geographical location that the user has noticed in the past And an attention time history acquisition step of acquiring an attention time for a position detected by the user in the past in the attention history acquisition step.

[0015] The invention according to claim 9 provides the invention according to claim 8.
In the invention described in the above, the information editing step proposes a specific action, and responds to the information in a format in which any one of at least one of a negative, an affirmative, or an ignorable answer can be made. It has a proposal type information generation step of automatically organizing and editing, and the response automatically generated in the proxy response generation step is negative, positive,
Or, it is characterized by being either ignored.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a program for causing a computer to execute the information processing procedure according to the fourth, fifth, or sixth aspect.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment is applied to an electronic computer.

[Embodiment 1] FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing a configuration of an information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a central processing unit, and 2 denotes a ROM, a RAM, a disk device, The storage device is configured to store various data and programs. Reference numeral 3 denotes a keyboard, which is operated by a user to input character information and commands. Reference numeral 4 denotes a mouse as a pointing device, which is operated by a user to generate an input. 5
A CRT display device displays character information, image information, and the like. Reference numeral 6 denotes an external device connection interface for connecting to an external device such as another information processing device or a printing device by a wired or wireless means such as a cable.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the information processing apparatus of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 20 denotes the information processing apparatus, and reference numeral 21 denotes another information processing apparatus which does not constitute the present invention. Both devices are mutually connected through a device connection unit 22 such as a network. FIG. 2 shows that many information processing apparatuses are under the same network environment and are interconnected. In this case, the information processing device can select any information processing device and execute the information transmission / reception instruction according to the judgment of the user or the computer program.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the information processing apparatus according to the present invention.
In step 1, information from outside is automatically collected. Step S3
In 02, the information collected in step S301 is automatically edited. Here, the information is formatted to conform to a particular format for later use. In step S303, the information edited in step S302 is transmitted. Step S30
In step 4, the information transmitted in step S303 is received. A step S305 acquires the situation of the user acquired by the situation grasping process.

In step S306, the information received in step S304 is evaluated together with the situation of the user obtained in step S305, and it is determined whether or not the information should be presented to the user. If the information is not information to be presented, the information is rejected in step S307 and the process returns to step S301. If it is determined in step S306 that the information is to be presented, information presentation processing is performed in the next step S308.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a data structure in a situation grasping process for grasping the situation of the user and providing a judgment material for the subsequent processing. The situation is information for grasping the situation of the user. It shows the elements of the information storage table. The measured time, the position information (coordinates) of the user at that time, the direction of interest (coordinates), the device usage status (combination of flags), the performance of the device in use (combination of flags), and the presented information are shown. If it exists, it is expressed by the reference information and the response result information.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining a characteristic portion of the operation in the situation grasp processing for updating the information stored in the user situation storage table. First, the current time is obtained in step S401. In step S402, the device usage status of the user is acquired. This includes information such as the usage status of an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse, and the display state of a screen. In addition, the performance of the device (whether audio output is possible, the size of the display device, how much area can be used for display, and the like) are also acquired.

In step S403, a physical or virtual geographical position of the user is specified. This includes calculating the latitude and longitude based on the position signal transmitted through a satellite in the case of a physical position, and specifying the geographical position of an oscillator using the reception range of wireless communication. Cases are included. In addition, in the case of a virtual position, a case where a map is displayed on a screen and a specific portion thereof is specified, or a case where a latitude and longitude are directly or indirectly input and specified are included. In any case, no difference in processing between the physical position information and the virtual position information occurs in the present invention, and both are treated equally as geographical position information.

Next, in step S404, it is acquired in which direction the user is focusing. By specifying a position and specifying a direction, an object on coordinates to which the user's attention is directed is specified. Step S40
In step 5, the information obtained in the above processing is written in the status information storage table, and the processing ends. At this time, the initial values of the elements of the presentation information reference information and the response result information are blank.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining a characteristic portion of the operation of the present invention in the information presentation processing. First, in step S501, the situation of the user is obtained by executing the situation grasping processing. Next, a process for selecting the most suitable information presenting means from the situation of the user grasped in step S501 is started. Step S502
Then, one device that can be used for information presentation is selected based on the current situation grasped in step S501.

For example, if it is determined that the frequency of keyboard tapping of the current device is high, it is determined that the user is at the moment of concentrating on the work. Select Alternatively, if the keyboard input frequency is low and the audio input / output device is used frequently, the user is determined to be paying attention to the audio device. Conceivable.

In step S503, step S502
Acquires the performance of the usable device selected in. For example,
This includes the presence or absence of an audio output device of the device, the area that can be simultaneously displayed on the display device, the number of colors, and the like. Step S50
At 4, it is determined whether the information to be presented can be sufficiently expressed by the device selected at step S503. If it is determined that the expression cannot be made, the process returns to step S502 until sufficient means can be found. If it is determined that it can be expressed, information to be presented is received in step S505. Information is presented in step S506, and proxy response processing is executed in step S507.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the operation in the proxy response process.
Create response options with. Since the presentation information is formalized in S302 described above, it is possible to generate a choice in a form corresponding to this. Next, in step S602, a situation grasp process is executed to grasp the current situation of the user. Next, a similar response search process is executed in step S603. Based on the past response history obtained as a result and the current situation of the user obtained in step S602, an option that is considered to be most likely to be selected by the user is determined in step S604.

Next, in step S605, a timer is set, and in step S606, a response from the user is accepted. If there is a response instruction from the user in step S606, the process proceeds to step S609. Step S
At 607, it is determined whether the timer has expired. Step S608 is executed when the response from the user has expired. The response determined in step S604 is regarded as a response from the user. In step S609, the obtained presentation information and response result are respectively written in the situation information, which is the information acquired in step S602, in order to be used as a determination material in a similar process in the future. Then, step S609
Is reflected in step S610. That is, processing suitable for the response is executed.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart for explaining the characteristic portion of the operation of the present invention in the similar response search processing (corresponding to step S603 in FIG. 7) executed in the proxy response processing. Receive. In step S702, a situation grasp process is executed to receive the current situation of the user. In step S703, the past status information stored in the status information table is compared with the information received in step S701 in order from the newest one. If it is determined that they are the same or similar, in step S704, the past user status and step S702 are used.
Compare the situation of the user received in. If it is determined that they are the same or similar, the response information obtained at that time is obtained in step S705, and this is returned in step S706. In step S707, the above-described processing is repeated by the number of pieces of information in the status information table.

[Embodiment 2] FIG. 9 is a block diagram of another embodiment of the information processing apparatus according to the present invention. In FIG. 9, reference numeral 101 denotes an information acquisition unit. Information is automatically obtained by appropriate means and methods without explicit instructions from the user. In the present embodiment, HTML page information and image information including a specific keyword of a Web site are periodically acquired through the Internet, or a photographed image is periodically acquired from a camera installed on a street corner connected to the Internet. And getting it.

Reference numeral 102 denotes an information editing unit. The information acquired by the information acquisition unit 101 may be in a format unsuitable for the processing of the present invention as it is, or may be required to be edited in order to improve the efficiency of processing including transmission. Therefore, the information is re-edited by the information editing unit 102 into a format that can be easily processed by each unit of the present invention. For example, in the case of acquiring a camera image connected to the Internet, if the camera tilt and shooting direction are relative information from the installation location, it can be converted to absolute coordinates using latitude and longitude, and multiple Omission of image transmission when there is almost no difference between images can be considered. In the case of Web page information, it is conceivable to absorb fluctuations in expression of words (for example, unify computers, computers, etc.) from unifying character codes.

Reference numeral 103 denotes an information transmitting unit. The information edited by the information editing unit 102 is transmitted to the user's environment. Reference numeral 104 denotes an information receiving unit. Information transmission unit 1
03 receives the transmitted information. Reference numeral 105 denotes a situation grasping unit. The situation where the user is placed is grasped and stored as information that can be processed. For example, it processes information such as whether the user is busy operating the computer or what kind of information is currently focused on.

Reference numeral 106 denotes an information selection unit. The information obtained by the information receiving unit 104 is selected based on the status of the user obtained by the status grasping unit 105.
For example, if the user is busy, information that is considered to have a low priority is not selected. 107 is an information presentation method determination unit. Based on the information obtained by the information receiving unit 104 and the situation of the user obtained by the situation grasping unit 105, the most suitable presentation method is determined. For example, if the user is watching the computer screen, it is most appropriate to display it on the screen; if not, it is decided to notify by voice, or if the user operates the computer If it is not inside, it may be determined that the notification is made by printing with a printing device. Also, it is processed here whether the means is sufficient for the information to be presented.

Reference numeral 108 denotes a proxy response generator. Based on the situation of the user obtained by the situation grasping unit 105 and the information obtained by the information receiving unit 104, the most likely response of the user is assumed and held. For example, when it is determined that the user is creating a document as a process on the computer in the situation grasping unit 105, it is determined that the response that can be assumed by the user because the user is busy is to ignore the information presentation. This is what you do.

Reference numeral 109 denotes an information presentation unit. The information selected by the information selection unit 106 is actually presented to the user by the means determined by the information presentation method determination unit 107. 110 is a proxy response adoption unit. If the user does not actively respond to the information presented by the information presenting unit 109, processing is performed in which the response assumed by the proxy response generating unit 108 is regarded as a response from the user.

FIG. 10 is a system configuration diagram of the second embodiment.
In the figure, reference numeral 20 denotes the information processing device, and reference numeral 21 denotes another information processing device which does not constitute the present invention. Each device is connected through device connection means such as a network. Here, it is shown that a large number of information processing apparatuses are under the same network environment, and in the present invention, the information processing apparatus constituting the present invention and another information processing apparatus may coexist on a network. It is not shown. Further, even if the transmitting side and the receiving side of the information are not one-to-one but many-to-many, the above is true. In this case, the information processing apparatus can transmit and receive information by selecting a plurality of arbitrary information processing apparatuses at the same time if necessary, based on the judgment of the user or the computer program.

The data structure and the flow chart in the situation grasping process for grasping the situation of the user and providing the judgment material for the subsequent process are as described with reference to FIG. The status information is referred to as status information, and a set of status information is referred to as a status information table. The status information table is generated and held at the start of the process of the status grasping unit 105 in FIG. 9, and the status information is generated and added / updated in the process shown in FIG.

The flowchart of the characteristic part of the operation in the situation grasp processing unit 105 in FIG. 9 can be performed in the same manner as that shown in FIG. That is, first, step S
At 401, the current time is acquired. In step S402, the device usage status of the user is acquired. This includes information such as the usage status of an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse, and the display state of a screen. In addition, the performance of the device (whether audio output is possible, the size of the display device, how much area can be used for display, and the like) are also acquired.

In step S403, the physical or virtual geographical position of the user is specified. This includes calculating the latitude and longitude based on the position signal transmitted through a satellite in the case of a physical position, and specifying the geographical position of an oscillator using the reception range of wireless communication. Cases are included. In addition, in the case of a virtual position, a case where a map is displayed on a screen and a specific portion thereof is specified, or a case where a latitude and longitude are directly or indirectly input and specified are included. In any case, no difference in processing between the physical position information and the virtual position information occurs in the present invention, and both are treated equally as geographical position information.

Next, in step S404, the direction in which the user is focusing is acquired. By specifying a position and specifying a direction, an object on coordinates to which the user's attention is directed is specified. Step S40
In step 5, the information obtained in the above processing is written in the status information storage table, and the processing ends. The initial values of the elements of the presentation information reference information and the response result information are blank.

The situation information created as described above is added to the situation information table to provide a table for knowing the situation and history of the user. The timing of addition of the status information is automatically and regularly issued by the status grasping unit 105 in FIG. 9 under appropriate control. That is,
The situation grasping unit automatically generates situation information appropriately and adds the situation information to the situation information table. In the present embodiment, it is basically generated periodically by dividing by time, and is also generated when a situation grasp request is issued from another component.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart for explaining the characteristic portion of the operation of the present embodiment mainly performed by the information presentation method determining section 107 shown in FIG. 9. First, the information receiving section 104 shown in FIG. Step S executed in
At 800, information to be presented is received. Next, step S80 executed in the situation grasping unit 105 shown in FIG.
In step 1, the current status of the user is acquired by executing the status grasping process. This is performed by acquiring the most recently updated status information from the status information of the data structure shown in FIG.

Next, the information presentation method determining unit 1 in FIG.
Move on to the process of 07. Here, processing for selecting the most suitable information presenting means from the user's situation is performed. Steps S802 to S804 are executed by the information presentation method determining unit 107 shown in FIG. Step S8
In 02, one device that can be used for information presentation is selected based on the current situation grasped in step S801. This is the device information acquired in step S402 in FIG. 5, and is performed by using the information of “device use status” in the data structure in FIG.

Next, in step S803, step S803
The performance of the usable device selected in 802 is acquired. For example, this is the presence or absence of the audio output device of the device, the area that can be simultaneously displayed on the display device, the number of colors, and the like, and uses the information obtained in step S402 shown in FIG. 5 and stored in the table. Next, in step S804,
It is determined whether the information to be presented is optimal for the device selected in step S503.

For example, if it is determined that the keyboard keying frequency of the device is high at this moment, it is determined that the user is at the moment of concentrating on the work, so a screen display device with a low effect of interrupting the work is optimal. Can be determined. Or,
If the keyboard input frequency is low and the use frequency of the audio input / output device is high, it is determined that the user is paying attention to the audio device, so the audio output device can be determined to be optimal. . In addition, the position information and the attention information of the user stored in the data structure shown in FIG. 4 are used for this determination. For example, if the information received in step S500 is photographable area change information from a camera connected to the Internet, and [Position information] in the data structure shown in FIG. 4 is included in the changed photographable area. It is considered appropriate to display the captured image, but if it is not, that is, if it is not included in the photographable area, it is considered that there is little to gain even if the image is displayed, It is conceivable that a means for text information is desirable.

If it is determined that the device under consideration is not optimal as a means, the process returns to step S802 until sufficient means can be found. If a device determined to be optimal is found, information is presented in step S805 executed by the information presentation unit 109 shown in FIG. Then, the proxy response generation unit 10 shown in FIG.
8 and the proxy response adopting unit 108 shown in FIG. 9 executes proxy response processing in step S807.
At this time, the presentation information reference information in FIG. 4 is set as a reference to the corresponding information, and the response result information is updated so as to store the result of the proxy response process.

The proxy response processing (FIG. 6) performed mainly by the proxy response generation unit 108 and the proxy response adoption unit 110 in FIG.
(Corresponding to step S507 in FIG. 7) can be performed by a flowchart similar to that in FIG.

First, the proxy response generator 108 in FIG.
In step S601 executed in step S601, a response option is created. Here, taking the case where the image of the camera obtained by the information acquisition unit 101 in FIG. 9 changes as an example, when information indicating that the image of the camera has changed is presented by the processing shown in FIG. We will consider the possibility of a response from the government and make choices. If the image of the camera changes, the user's response may be to expand and display the relevant part, ignore it, change the shooting target to another part, etc. Become.

Next, in step S602 executed by the situation grasping unit 105 shown in FIG. 9, a situation grasping process is executed to grasp the current situation of the user. This is to acquire the most recently generated status information tape from among the status information tapes composed of the status information having the data structure shown in FIG. Then, the proxy response generation unit 108 in FIG.
A similar response search process is executed in step S603 executed in. This can be explained with reference to FIG.

After step S603, the processing is performed in the proxy response adoption unit 110 shown in FIG. First, based on the past response history obtained in the processing up to step S603 and the current situation of the user obtained in step S602, an option considered to be most likely to be selected by the user is determined in step S604. decide. In step S605, a timer is set,
In step S606, the response of the user is accepted. If there is a response instruction from the user in step S606, the process proceeds to step S609. In step S607, it is determined whether the timer has expired.

Next, step S608 is executed when the response from the user has expired. Step S
The response determined at 604 is considered to be a response from the user. In step S609, the obtained presentation information and response result are respectively written in the situation information, which is the information acquired in step S602, in order to be used as a determination material in a similar process in the future. Then, the response information obtained in step S609 is stored in step S61.
Reflect at 0. That is, processing suitable for the response is executed.

Similar response search processing executed in the proxy response adoption unit 110 in FIG. 9 (step S60 in FIG. 7)
(Corresponding to 3) can be performed by the same flowchart as that in FIG.

First, in step S701, presentation information is received. In step S702, a situation grasp process is executed to receive the current situation of the user. In step S703, the past status information stored in the status information table is compared with the information received in step S701 in order from the newest one. If it is determined that they are the same or similar, a past user status and a step S702 are determined in a step S704.
Compare the situation of the user received in. If it is determined that they are the same or similar, the response information performed at that time is acquired in step S705, and the response information is returned in step S706. In step S707, the above processing is repeated by the number of pieces of information in the status information table.

In this way, it is searched for what kind of response the past user has made to a certain information presentation in the same situation (position, direction of interest, device state, etc.), and the reaction in the similar situation is searched. You will be able to repeat it again automatically.

As described above, by considering the current and past situations where the user is located, the most appropriate method for presenting the automatically collected information can be selected. Of information acquisition can be reduced. In addition, by automatically generating a response that can be performed by the user using recognition of the situation where the user is located, it is possible to respond to the user's intention even if the user does not explicitly start the operation. In this way, it is possible to make a response in accordance with the information, and thereby, it is possible to reduce a user's operation burden by progressing the information presentation without forcing the response.

In the above-described embodiment, the number of persons whose situation is to be detected in the situation grasping process is one. However, the situation of a plurality of persons may be grasped simultaneously in the situation detecting process. This may be the case, for example, where the unit for automatically acquiring and providing information is a group such as a department or section within a company. In this case, the history information is shared with other members.

More specifically, for example, a Web service for providing news information on the Internet to employees who are away from the office during sales activities.
There may be a case where the stock price information is automatically sent from the site b. In this case, a response assumed based on the current position and the device status of a specific employee can be inferred from the response of many employees in a similar situation. If a history of the majority of employees responding “unnecessary” to stock price information sent at a specific customer location (specified by geographical location information) is accumulated, one new employee The expected response when an employee is placed in such a situation (similar to the employee's own history)
(Assuming that no such situation exists yet).

Also, in the above-described embodiment, information other than the information shown as the element of the table for storing the situation of the user may be added as element information. For example, physical information such as temperature, humidity, altitude, and sound at the time of measurement,
Identification information indicating the person who was present at the point of interest, accompanying information such as name, age, gender, e-mail address, etc., or reference information to information indicating the store or building existing at the point of interest May be added to the table.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.) or may be applied to a device composed of one device.

A medium storing software program codes for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus, and a computer (or CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus is stored in a storage medium. The object of the present invention can be achieved by reading and executing the program code. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the function of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy (registered trademark) disk,
Hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-
A ROM, a CD-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, and the like can be used. When the computer executes the readout program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also an OS (Operating System) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code.
And the like perform part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the embodiments.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the support of the program code, The case where the CPU of the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by the processing.

When the present invention is applied to the storage medium described above, the storage medium stores program codes for executing processing corresponding to the above-described flowcharts.

[0066]

As described above, according to the present invention, information acquisition means for automatically collecting and acquiring information on a computer, and information for automatically editing and organizing the information acquired by the information acquisition means on a computer Editing means; information transmitting means for transmitting the information created by the information editing means; information receiving means for receiving the information transmitted by the information transmitting means; status grasping means for grasping the situation of the user; Information selecting means for automatically selecting information received by the means from information obtained by the situation grasping means, and a user automatically selecting information received by the information receiving means and information obtained by the situation grasping means. Information presenting method deciding means for deciding a method most likely to present the information to the user, and an information presenting method Information presenting means for presenting to the user in the information presenting method determined by the determining means, a proxy response generating means for determining a response desired by the user from information obtained in the situation grasping means, and generating a response, If there is no explicit response from the user for a certain period after the information is presented by the information presenting means, the proxy response adopting means uses the response generated by the proxy response generating means instead of the user's response. Therefore, by taking into account the current and past situations of the user, it is possible to select the most appropriate method when presenting the automatically collected information, The burden of acquisition can be reduced. In addition, by formalizing the content of the information to be presented and automatically generating responses that the user can make using recognition of the situation where the user is located, the user can explicitly It is possible to respond according to the user's intention without starting the operation, thereby reducing the burden on the user by progressing the information presentation without forcing the response. it can.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a system configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an outline of a process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a data structure in a situation grasping process according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a characteristic portion of an operation in a situation grasping process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a characteristic portion of an operation in a situation presentation process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a characteristic portion of an operation in a proxy response process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a characteristic portion of an operation in a similar response search process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a configuration of another embodiment of the information processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of another embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a characteristic portion of an operation in a situation presentation process according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[Description of Signs] 1 Central processing unit 2 Storage device 3 Keyboard 4 Mouse 5 CRT display device 6 External device connection interface 20, 21 Information processing device 22 Device connection unit 101 Information acquisition unit 102 Information editing unit 103 Information transmission unit 104 Information Receiving unit 105 Situation grasping unit 106 Information selecting unit 107 Information presenting method determining unit 108 Proxy response generating unit 109 Information presenting unit 110 Proxy response adopting unit

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Shiro Ito 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Takaya Ueda 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon (72) Inventor Yuji Ikeda 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo F-term in Canon Inc. (reference) 5E501 AA13 AB16 AC15 AC16 AC19 AC37 BA12 CB02 CB09 DA02 EA32 EA33 EA40 EB02 EB05 EB11 EB17 FA13 FA14 FA32

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. An information acquisition means for automatically collecting and acquiring information on a computer; an information editing means for automatically editing and organizing the information acquired by the information acquisition means; Information transmitting means for transmitting the received information, information receiving means for receiving the information transmitted by the information transmitting means, situation grasping means for grasping the situation of the user, and information received by the information receiving means. Information selecting means for automatically selecting from the information obtained by the situation grasping means; and information automatically received by the information receiving means and the information obtained by the situation grasping means for a user. Information presenting method determining means for deciding a method most likely to present information; and displaying the information selected by the information selecting means in the information presenting method. Information presenting means for presenting to the user in the information presenting method determined by the determining means, a proxy response generating means for determining a response desired by the user from the information obtained in the situation grasping means, and generating a response; If there is no explicit response from the user for a certain period after the information is presented by the information presenting means, a proxy that uses the response generated by the proxy response generating means instead of the user's response An information processing apparatus comprising: a response adopting unit. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said state grasping unit acquires a current device use state of the user, and an existing position state acquiring a current physical or virtual geographical position of the user. Acquiring means, a focused position situation acquiring means for acquiring a physical or virtual geographical position that the user is currently focusing on, and a position to which the user is currently detected by the focused state acquiring means. Time-of-interest status acquisition means for acquiring the time of interest of the user, device usage history grasping means for acquiring the user's past device usage status, and existence of acquiring the user's past physical or virtual geographical position Position history acquisition means, a position history acquisition means of interest for acquiring a physical or virtual geographical position that the user has been paying attention to in the past, The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises a focusing time history acquisition means for acquiring a focused time to position detected by the obtained unit. 3. The information editing means automatically proposes a specific action and automatically converts the information into a format in which a response can be made in any one or more of a negative, a positive, and a negligible combination. 3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising: a proposal-type information generating unit for sequentially organizing and editing, wherein a response automatically generated by the proxy response generating unit is one of negative, positive, or ignored. Information processing device. 4. An information acquisition step for automatically collecting and acquiring information on a computer; an information editing step for automatically editing and organizing the information acquired by the information acquisition step; Information transmitting step of transmitting the received information, information receiving step of receiving the information transmitted by the information transmitting step, situation grasping step of grasping the situation of the user, and information received by the information receiving step. An information selecting step of automatically selecting from information obtained by the situation grasping step, and automatically receiving information from the information received by the information receiving step and the information obtained by the situation grasping step to a user. An information presenting method determining step of determining a method that is most likely to present information, An information presenting step of presenting the information selected by the information selecting step to the user by the information presenting method determined by the information presenting method determining step; and a user desires from the information obtained in the situation grasping step. Determining a response, a proxy response generation step of generating a response, and after the information is presented by the information presentation step,
A proxy response adopting step of using the response generated by the proxy response generating step in place of the user's response when there is no explicit response from the user for a certain period of time. Method. 5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said status grasping step comprises: a device use status grasping step for acquiring a current device use situation of the user; and an existence location situation for acquiring a current physical or virtual geographical location of the user. An acquiring step, a focused position situation acquiring step of acquiring a physical or virtual geographical position which the user is currently focusing on, and a position where the user is currently detected by the focused state acquiring step. A time-of-interest status acquisition step of acquiring the time of interest of the user, a device usage history grasping step of acquiring the user's past device usage status, and a presence of acquiring the user's past physical or virtual geographical position A position history acquisition step, and a focused position history acquisition step of acquiring a physical or virtual geographical position that the user has noticed in the past. , Claim characterized in that it has a user and a focus time history acquiring step of acquiring focus time to position detected by the focus history acquisition step in the past 4
An information processing method according to claim 1. 6. The information editing step automatically proposes a specific action and automatically converts the information into a format in which a response can be made in any combination of one or more of negative, positive, or ignored. 6. A proposal-type information generating step of sequentially organizing and editing, wherein a response automatically generated in the proxy response generating step is any of negative, positive, or ignored. Information processing method. 7. A recording medium on which a program to be executed by a computer is recorded, comprising: an information acquisition step of automatically collecting and acquiring information; and automatically editing and organizing the information acquired by the information acquisition step. Information editing step, information transmission step of transmitting information created by the information editing step, information receiving step of receiving information transmitted by the information transmission step, and situation grasping step of grasping the situation of the user An information selecting step of automatically selecting information received by the information receiving step from information obtained by the status grasping step; and information obtained by the information received by the information receiving step and the situation grasping step. Suitable for automatically presenting the information to the user from the information An information presenting method determining step of determining a method; an information presenting step of presenting information selected by the information selecting step to a user in an information presenting method determined by the information presenting method determining step; Determine the response desired by the user from the obtained information, a proxy response generation step of generating a response, after the information is presented by the information presentation step,
A computer-readable medium having a proxy response adopting step of using the response generated by the proxy response generating step in place of the user's response when there is no explicit response from the user for a certain period of time. Possible recording medium. 8. The status grasping step includes: a device use status grasping step for acquiring a current device use status of a user; and an existence location status for acquiring a current physical or virtual geographical location of the user. An acquiring step, a focused position situation acquiring step of acquiring a physical or virtual geographical position which the user is currently focusing on, and a position where the user is currently detected by the focused state acquiring step. A time-of-interest status acquisition step of acquiring the time of interest of the user, a device usage history grasping step of acquiring the user's past device usage status, and a presence of acquiring the user's past physical or virtual geographical position A position history acquisition step, and a focused position history acquisition step of acquiring a physical or virtual geographical position that the user has noticed in the past. , Claim characterized in that it has a user and a focus time history acquiring step of acquiring focus time to position detected by the focus history acquisition step in the past 7
A computer-readable recording medium according to claim 1. 9. The information editing step automatically proposes a specific action and automatically converts the information into a format that can be answered in any combination of one or more of negative, positive, or ignored. 9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising a proposal-type information generating step of sequentially organizing and editing, wherein a response automatically generated in the proxy response generating step is any of negative, positive, or ignored. Computer-readable recording medium. 10. A program for causing a computer to execute the information processing procedure according to claim 4, 5 or 6.