JP2003067414A - Multimedia contents providing system, method and program therefor and storage medium recording the program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make the dynamic provision of contents possible by selecting and providing contents in accordance with users when the contents are provided. SOLUTION: In a contents providing system 1, when the contents are provided to the users, a scenario-determining part 14 carries out the following processes. That is, it retrieves the positions to which more than one contents is defined, finds evaluation values representing levels suitable for providing the users with each of the contents based on the information on the defined attributes of the contents and the information on the attributes of the users concerned, selects the highest evaluation value from the evaluation values and then determines the contents corresponding to the selected evaluation value as the contents to be provided.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to video contents,
The present invention relates to a multimedia contents providing system for sequentially providing contents such as image contents, text contents, and audio contents to a user's computer via a network, a method thereof, a program thereof, and a recording medium having the program recorded, and particularly The present invention relates to a dynamic content providing technique of selecting and providing content according to the previous user at the time of providing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, multimedia contents have been provided in which contents such as video contents, image contents, text contents, and audio contents are sequentially provided to a user's computer via a network. Data is used.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a scenario 500 used in the provision of multimedia content. In the scenario 500, the scenario definer describes individual contents that are provided in stages by the node link model. In the scenario, the timing of provision and a plurality of contents provided in parallel can be defined. A computer system that provides multimedia contents based on this scenario 500 is
To interpret and provide individual content. That is, first, the nodes are sequentially traced from the start node of the scenario 500, the first video is provided, the video and audio to be provided are simultaneously provided in parallel, and the process ends when the end node is reached.

Therefore, the content defined by the scenario definer can be provided only by describing the content in such a scenario.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional provision of multimedia contents, since the contents are permanently provided on the basis of the defined scenario, the provided contents can be provided to each user. Can't be different. For example, it is not possible to provide a male user with an advertisement image of a car suitable for a male user while providing a female user with an advertisement image of a cosmetic suitable for a female user at a stage of providing a certain content.
As a matter of course, it is impossible to provide special contents to users who have received the multimedia contents more than a certain number of times. Therefore, there is a strong demand for improvement in appeal to users who receive provision of multimedia contents.

[0006] Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a dynamic content in which content according to a user of a provision destination is selected and provided at the time of provision. An object is to provide a multimedia content providing system capable of providing, a method thereof, a program thereof, and a recording medium having the program recorded therein.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, the present invention according to claim 1 provides contents such as video contents, image contents, character contents or audio contents to a user's computer via a network. When providing multimedia contents to be provided in stages, corresponding attribute information is given to each of a plurality of contents that can be provided, and the attribute information of the recipient user is stored and provided at each providing stage. A multimedia content providing system for providing a content based on a scenario in which one content or a plurality of content, which are candidates for providing, are described in a place corresponding to the providing stage, wherein when the multimedia content is provided, From the above scenarios, multiple content candidates are provided. Is searched for, and an evaluation value indicating a degree suitable for provision to the user for each content is obtained based on the attribute information of the described content and the attribute information of the user, and the evaluation value is calculated. The multimedia content providing system is characterized in that the highest evaluation value is selected from among the above, and the content corresponding to the selected evaluation value is determined as the content to be provided.

According to the present invention of claim 1, when a multimedia content is provided, a scenario is searched for a portion where a plurality of contents which are candidates for providing are described, and the attribute of the described content is searched. Based on the information and the attribute information of the user, an evaluation value indicating the degree to which each content is suitable for providing to the user is obtained, the highest evaluation value is selected from the evaluation values, and the selected evaluation Since the content corresponding to the value is determined as the content to be provided, it is possible to provide the dynamic content by selecting and providing the content according to the user of the recipient at the time of providing.

The present invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that the attribute information of the user is changed according to the past provision status to the user, with the multimedia contents providing system according to claim 1. And

According to the present invention of claim 2, the provided content can be changed according to the past provision status.

The present invention according to claim 3 provides multimedia contents for gradually providing contents such as video contents, image contents, character contents or audio contents to a user's computer via a network. The corresponding attribute information is given to each of the plurality of contents that can be provided, and the attribute information of the user of the provision destination is stored, and one content provided at each providing stage or a plurality of contents that are the provision candidates are provided. A method for providing multimedia contents in a multimedia contents providing system, which provides contents based on a scenario described in a part corresponding to a stage, wherein the multimedia contents are provided from among the scenarios when the multimedia contents are provided. Multiple candidate contents are listed Is searched for, and an evaluation value indicating a degree suitable for providing each content to the user is obtained based on the attribute information of the described content and the attribute information of the user. The multimedia content providing method is characterized in that the highest evaluation value is selected from among and the content corresponding to the selected evaluation value is determined as the content to be provided.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, similarly to the first aspect of the present invention, it is possible to provide dynamic contents by selecting and providing contents according to the user of the providing destination at the time of providing.

Further, the present invention of claim 4 is characterized in that the attribute information of the user is changed according to the past provision status to the user, with a method for providing multimedia contents according to claim 3. And

According to the present invention of claim 4, similarly to the present invention of claim 2, the provided contents can be changed according to the past providing situation.

The present invention according to claim 5 provides a solution by using a multimedia content providing program which is a computer program for executing the multimedia content providing method according to claim 3 or 4.

According to the present invention of claim 5, there is further provided a multimedia content providing program which enables dynamic content providing by selecting and providing content according to a user of a recipient at the time of providing. It is possible to provide a multimedia content providing program capable of changing the content according to the past providing situation via a network or the like.

The present invention according to claim 6 provides a solution by using a recording medium having a multimedia content providing program, which is a computer program for executing the multimedia content providing method according to claim 3 or 4, recorded therein.

According to the present invention of claim 6, there is further provided a multimedia contents providing program which enables dynamic contents providing by selecting contents according to the user of the providing destination at the time of providing and providing the contents. It is possible to circulate a recording medium that records a multimedia content providing program capable of changing the content according to the past providing situation.

[0019]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Note that the content is usually data for individually reproducing video, image, character or audio, and is called video content, image content, character content or audio content, etc. Anything is fine. The integration of such data becomes possible by a hypertext description language or the like. Although not mentioned in the description, the content is identified and recognized by information such as a file name.

[First Embodiment] FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a multimedia content providing system 1 according to the embodiment of FIG.

Multimedia content providing system 1
Is a computer system that provides content to a user's computer in stages via a network, and includes a content storage unit 11 that stores content,
A content attribute database 12 that stores the accumulated attribute information of each content, a user profile management unit 13 that stores and manages the attribute information (profile) of the user of the provision destination, and a scenario determination that determines the contents of the scenario to be input. The unit 14 includes a scenario interpreter 15 that interprets the determined scenario, and a content provider 16 that transmits content to the user's computer based on the interpreted scenario. The network is the Internet or the like, and a part of the network is composed of a fixed telephone network or a mobile telephone network. The user's computer is a device having a content reproducing function such as a personal computer, a personal digital assistant called a PDA, and a mobile phone.

It should be noted that a proxy server or the like representing the user's computer may be considered as the user's computer.

Now, the contents storage section 11 stores contents of "automobile advertising image" and "cosmetics advertising image". Further, the content attribute database 12 stores attribute information "male" so as to be associated with the content "advertising image of automobile", and is called "female" so as to be associated with content "advertising image of cosmetics". Stores attribute information.

The former shows that the content "automobile advertisement image" is suitable for men, and the latter shows that the content "cosmetic advertisement image" is suitable for women.

The user profile management unit 13 stores and manages the gender of "male" as attribute information of a male user whose contents are provided from the system 1. As the female user's attribute information, the gender “female” is stored and managed.

Although the content storage unit 11 is configured in the hard disk device or the like in the system 1, it may be replaced by a server that provides the content via a communication line or a broadcasting station that broadcasts the content. It is possible.

Further, each block shown in FIG. 1 and a block of a second embodiment described later are realized by a computer program executed by the CPU or the like of the multimedia content providing system using a storage element such as a RAM. It is a thing. Therefore, such a program can be executed by a semiconductor memory, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk,
It can be widely distributed by being recorded on a computer-readable recording medium such as a magnetic tape or transmitted via a communication network such as the Internet.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a scenario before content determination. The scenario before determining the content is one content provided in each providing stage or a plurality of contents that are providing candidates are described in a portion corresponding to the stage. For example, the scenario 10 shown in FIG.
0 indicates that it is an advertisement image of automobiles and an advertisement image of cosmetics.
One content is described and defined as a content candidate to be provided after the first video is provided. A description (referred to as a branch point denoted by reference numeral 110) for finding a place where a content candidate is described is described. Further, in the scenario 200 shown in FIG. 2B, a similar branch point 210 is provided, two audios are defined as content candidates, and a video provided together with one of these audios is further defined. .

The scenario can be described by the node link model, but if one content provided at each providing stage or a plurality of contents which are providing candidates can be described at a position corresponding to the relevant stage, it is described by another description method. Good.

Next, the operation of the multimedia content providing system 1 will be described. When a request for providing multimedia content is received from a computer or the like of a user whose profile is managed (simply referred to as a user), first, the scenario 100 is input to the scenario determination unit 14. Of course, the scenario 200 may be input.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the flow of processing performed by the scenario determining unit 14 at this time. Scenario determination unit 14
Searches for a location in the scenario 100 in which a plurality of contents that are candidates for provision are described (step S1),
Based on the attribute information of this defined content and the attribute information of this user, an evaluation value indicating the degree to which each content is suitable for providing to this user is obtained (step S2), and the evaluation value is calculated. The evaluation value having the highest value is selected from among and the content corresponding to the selected evaluation value is determined as the content to be provided (step S3).

Specifically, in step S1, the scenario 100 is scanned, and for example, the location where the content candidate is described is searched based on the branch point described above. In step S2, first, “male”, which is the attribute information of the advertisement image of the automobile, and “female”, which is the attribute information of the advertisement image of the cosmetic, are read from the content attribute database 12. Further, “male” which is the attribute information of this user is acquired from the user profile management unit 13. Then, when the attribute information of the user and the attribute information of the content match, the evaluation value is set to 1, and when they do not match, the evaluation value is set to 0. Therefore, the evaluation value corresponding to the advertisement image of the automobile is 1, and the evaluation value corresponding to the advertisement image of the cosmetic is 0. In step S3, the advertisement image of the car corresponding to the highest evaluation value 1 of these evaluation values 1 and 0 is determined as the content to be provided.

When there are a plurality of locations where a plurality of contents are defined, the scenario determining section 14 carries out the above processing for each location. Then, the scenario interpretation unit 15 sets the scenario 100A that reflects the determined content.
Give to.

The scenario interpretation unit 15 analyzes the given scenario 100A in order from the beginning, interprets what content should be provided at each stage, and notifies the content providing unit 16 of the content. Specifically, after the first video is provided, it is interpreted so as to provide the advertisement video of the car, and the content providing unit 16 is notified of this content.

The content providing unit 16 provides the content to the user's computer according to the notified content. Specifically, after the first image is provided, the advertisement image of the car is provided.

As described above, according to the first embodiment of the present invention, when multimedia contents are provided,
The scenario is searched for a place where a plurality of contents that are provision candidates are described, and based on the attribute information of the described contents and the attribute information of the user, the contents are provided to the user. An evaluation value indicating a suitable degree is obtained, the highest evaluation value is selected from the evaluation values, and the content corresponding to the selected evaluation value is determined as the content to be provided. It is possible to provide dynamic content by selecting and providing content at the time of provision.

The determined contents do not necessarily have to be provided to the scenario interpreter 15 in the form of a scenario, and the original scenario and the determined contents can be provided separately.

[Second Embodiment] FIG. 4 shows a second embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a multimedia content providing system 1A according to the embodiment of FIG. The same components as those of the multimedia content providing system 1 are designated by the same reference numerals and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Now, in the multimedia content providing system 1A, instead of the user profile management unit 13,
A user profile management unit 13A is provided.
The user profile management unit 13A does not keep the user's attribute information registered in advance, but changes it according to the past provision status to the user.

The scenario determining unit 14, the scenario interpreting unit 15, and the content providing unit 16 perform the same processing as that of the multimedia content providing system 1. Also, the content storage unit 11 and the content attribute database 12 are configured similarly to those of the multimedia content providing system 1 except for differences in content.

Multimedia content providing system 1
In A, the contents “normal video” and “special video” are stored in the content storage unit 11. In addition, in the content attribute database 12, "general customers" are associated with this "normal video" content.
Is stored, and the attribute information "customer" is stored so as to be associated with the content "special video". The former shows that the content "normal video" is suitable for general customers, and the latter shows that the content "special video" is suitable for customers.

On the other hand, in the user profile management unit 13A, the information "customer" or "general customer" is set as the attribute information of the user who is provided with the content from the system 1A. In addition, the user profile management unit 13A regards the user who provides the content as a general customer when the number of times of providing the content provided in the past is less than 10 times, and the customer when the number of times is 10 times or more. The determination condition 131 to set is set. In addition, the user profile management unit 13A is configured to count the number of times the content is provided and record the content in a memory area called a counter 132.

Next, the operation of the multimedia content providing system 1A will be described. First, when a request for providing multimedia content is received from a user, the user profile management unit 13A adds 1 to the number of times the counter 132 is provided. Then, the number of times of provision after addition is applied to the determination condition 131 to determine whether this user is a general customer or a customer. Here, since the number of times of provision is 1, it is determined that the customer is a general customer. Then, the user profile management unit 1
3A sets the attribute information of this user to "general customer".

On the other hand, the scenario determining section 14 receives a scenario 300 in which two contents, that is, a normal image and a special image, are defined as candidates for the provided contents. It should be noted that the scenario 300 also describes branch points in order to find the locations where these content candidates are described.

The scenario deciding unit 14 scans the scenario 300, and searches for a location where a content candidate is defined, for example, based on the branch point and the like described above. Then, first, the “general customer”, which is the attribute information of the normal image, and the “customer”, which is the attribute information of the special image, are read from the content attribute database 12. In addition, “general customer” which is the attribute information of this user is acquired from the user profile management unit 13A. Then, when the attribute information of the user and the attribute information of the content match, the evaluation value is set to 1, and when they do not match, the evaluation value is set to 0. Therefore, the evaluation value corresponding to the general video is 1, and the evaluation value corresponding to the special video is 0.
Then, the general video corresponding to the highest evaluation value 1 of the evaluation values 1 and 0 is determined as the content to be provided.

When there are a plurality of locations where a plurality of contents are defined, the scenario determining section 14 carries out the above processing for each location. Then, the scenario interpretation unit 15 sets the scenario 300A that reflects the determined content.
Give to.

The scenario interpretation unit 15 analyzes the given scenario 300A in order from the beginning, interprets what content should be provided at each stage, and notifies the content providing unit 16 of the content. Specifically, the content is interpreted so as to provide a general image, and the content is notified to the content providing unit 16.

The content providing unit 16 provides the content to the user's computer according to the notified content. That is, a general image is provided.

Now, as the number of times of providing the content of this user increases, the number of times of providing of the counter 132 is added, and as a result of the determination based on the determination condition 131, the attribute information of this user is called “good customer”. Information will be set. Therefore, the scenario determining unit 14 determines that the evaluation value corresponding to the special video is 1 and the evaluation value corresponding to the general video is 0, and that the content to be provided is the special video, and not the general video but the special video. Will be provided.

It should be noted that instead of the number of times the content is provided, for example, based on the information about the operation performed by the user, the content the user is interested in in the past is obtained, and the attribute information of this content is used to obtain the attribute information of the user. It may be changed.

As described above, according to the second embodiment of the present invention, the attribute information of the user is changed according to the past provision status to this user, and accordingly, according to the provision status. You can change the content provided.

The attribute information of the contents is not limited to the keywords described in the above embodiment, but may be numerical values, colors, shapes, and the like. Further, a plurality of attribute information may be added to one content, and a combination of these may be used as the attribute information.

In the above embodiment, the information indicating the user who is suitable for providing the content is the attribute information of the content. On the contrary, the attribute information of the user is the content suitable for providing to the user. May be attribute information indicating.

[0054]

As described above, according to the present invention,
At the time of providing multimedia content, a scenario is searched for a place where a plurality of contents that are provision candidates are described, and each of the relevant contents is searched based on the attribute information of the described content and the attribute information of the user. An evaluation value indicating the degree of suitability for providing the content to the user is obtained, the highest evaluation value is selected from the evaluation values, and the content corresponding to the selected evaluation value is determined as the content to be provided. Therefore, it is possible to provide dynamic content by selecting and providing content according to the user of the recipient at the time of providing, and the appealing power to the user is improved.

Further, according to the present invention, since the attribute information of the user is changed according to the past providing status to the user, the provided content can be changed according to the past providing status.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a multimedia content providing system 1 according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram exemplifying a scenario before content determination.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a flow of processing performed by a scenario determining unit 14.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a multimedia content providing system 1A according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a scenario used in the provision of conventional multimedia content.

[Explanation of symbols]

1,1A multimedia contents providing system 11 Content storage section 12 Content attribute database 13, 13A User profile management unit 14 Scenario decision unit 15 Scenario interpretation department 16 Content Provider 100, 200, 300 Scenarios before the content is decided 100A, 300A Scenario after the content is decided 131 Judgment condition 132 counter

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Yasushi Hanago             2-3-1, Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo             Inside Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Inventor Yoshinobu Tonomura             2-3-1, Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo             Inside Telegraph and Telephone Corporation F term (reference) 5B075 ND16 NK46 PQ05 PR03

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. When providing multimedia contents in which contents such as video contents, image contents, text contents, and audio contents are gradually provided to a user's computer via a network, each of a plurality of contents that can be provided is provided. Is provided with corresponding attribute information and the attribute information of the user of the provision destination is stored, and one content provided in each provision stage or a plurality of contents that are provision candidates are described in a portion corresponding to the provision stage. A multimedia contents providing system for providing contents based on a scenario, wherein, when the multimedia contents are provided, from the scenario, a part where a plurality of contents that are candidates for providing is described is searched for, The attribute information of the described content and the Based on the attribute information of the user, obtain an evaluation value indicating the degree to which each content is suitable to be provided to the user, select the highest evaluation value from the evaluation values, and respond to the selected evaluation value. A multimedia content providing system characterized in that the content to be provided is determined as the content to be provided. 2. The multimedia content providing system according to claim 1, wherein the attribute information of the user is changed according to the past provision status to the user. 3. When providing multimedia contents in which contents such as video contents, image contents, text contents or audio contents are gradually provided to a user's computer via a network, each of a plurality of contents that can be provided is provided. Is provided with corresponding attribute information and the attribute information of the user of the provision destination is stored, and one content provided in each provision stage or a plurality of contents that are provision candidates are described in a portion corresponding to the provision stage. A method for providing multimedia contents in a multimedia contents providing system for providing contents based on a scenario, wherein a plurality of contents that are candidates for providing are described from among the scenarios when the multimedia contents are provided. Search for the Based on the described attribute information of the content and the attribute information of the user, an evaluation value indicating a degree suitable for providing the content to the user is obtained, and the highest evaluation value is selected from the evaluation values. A multimedia content providing method, characterized in that the content corresponding to the selected evaluation value is determined as content to be provided. 4. The multimedia content providing method according to claim 3, wherein the attribute information of the user is changed according to the past provision status to the user. 5. A multimedia content providing program, which is a computer program for executing the multimedia content providing method according to claim 3 or 4. 6. A recording medium on which a multimedia content providing program, which is a computer program for executing the multimedia content providing method according to claim 3 or 4, is recorded.