JP2006024060A - Information acquisition utilization managing apparatus, and information acquisition utilization managing method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information acquisition utilization managing apparatus utilizing information of high practical benefit while protecting personal information, by enabling a user to provide information that is personally acquired and stored by the user to others in a scope allowed by the user. <P>SOLUTION: Experience information relevant to the phenomenon experienced by a user is acquired, and the experience information and a disclosure level for determining a disclosure scope of the experience information corresponding to the experience information are stored in a data storage section. A means is provided that, when an acquisition request of the experience information stored in the data storage section is received through a communication means, detects the disclosure level of a partner user or partner apparatus having transmitted the acquisition request. The experience information adapting to the detected disclosure level of the partner apparatus is extracted from the data storage section by referring to the disclosure level corresponding to the experience information, and is transmitted to the partner apparatus having performed the acquisition request through the communication means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an information acquisition and use management apparatus and method for making information that is acquired and stored personally by a user open to others while maintaining confidentiality as desired by the user.

  In recent years, with the development of a network such as the so-called Internet, the spread of large-capacity recording media, etc., an environment for obtaining a large amount of information in a specific information acquisition management device and providing the acquired information as appropriate is being prepared. . Along with this, various information providing services have been proposed. In these information providing services, various devices have been devised in order to handle a large amount of information efficiently and effectively.

  For example, in online services that allow users to purchase books from sites on the network, a method of providing information and services that match each individual character by extracting the personal preference of the user who is the provider (provided) Information personalization).

  That is, for example, when a user purchases a book, a service that presents a recommended book from the work list of the author of the purchased book, and other books purchased by other users who purchased the same book as the user are presented. And services that inform other users of information reported to be useful to the user.

  As described above, by adjusting the information provided by the provider to each individual user, it is possible to provide so-called push-type information that provides optimal information to those who desire the information and services. . And the information receiving side can easily obtain desired information.

  By the way, in order to match the provided information to each individual (personalization), conventionally, the information provider collects personal level information through questionnaires on paper and sites, etc. In the example of the book, the purchase history and the like need to be collected.

  For example, in JP 2003-16202 A, as information providing services using the Internet, information on wedding ceremony / banquet halls, English conversation classes, various culture schools, etc., information on atmosphere, service contents, etc. Information collected from those who have already used them through questionnaires, etc., and the results of the collection applied to predetermined rules, information that matches them, that is, information about facilities and experience information from users are displayed on the display screen. A service has been proposed that displays information together to provide a judgment material for determining a facility or a provider to a person who intends to use it.

  In this information providing service, when the information is made available among a plurality of users, when the user publishes the experience data, the information is provided according to the experience level, and the user who searches for the information has high accuracy. By visualizing the collected experience data of each user so that information (information close to the desired information) can be obtained, the search operation step for searching for desired information from a large amount of character information is simplified. ing.

The above patent documents are as follows.
JP-A-9-91358

  The above-described conventional technology collects information at a site (server) on the Internet, and obtains information desired by the user by accessing the site. The side collects information by a questionnaire method etc. and accumulates provided information.

  However, since it is a questionnaire system, items of information to be collected are only predetermined items, and personal information that the user really wants is difficult to collect because of privacy.

  In addition, for example, most of the information collected through questionnaires from those who have already used a wedding or reception hall is text information, and the text content provided includes information content that the user attaches importance to. It is difficult to immediately recognize whether or not Therefore, in the conventional system, the user has to read a lot of character information that is not originally required, and it may be difficult to find information that the user needs.

  In addition, as in the conventional technology described above, many of the technologies for matching provided information to each user (personalization) are methods in which an information provider uses the technology to extract a user's preference model. When providing a service that the user likes, for example, the service provider side groups users with similar preferences, and recommends or recommends information that a person likes or dislikes to members in that group. The mechanism which does not do was taken.

  However, such a method is based on the premise that the user groups grouped based on a predetermined condition share common preferences, and does not necessarily reflect the detailed preferences of individual users who need information. It wasn't. In addition, the user's individual subjectivity is hardly reflected. Further, the mechanism for recommending user preference information to a group in this way also gives the user personal information to the service provider side, and thus has a privacy problem.

  It would be very beneficial if an event experienced by another user and information related to the event, such as user evaluation, can be acquired. However, in general, information recorded and stored by using an information recording device such as a personal imaging recording device or recording device remains as personal information for the recording, and is a site on the Internet as described above. It is rarely uploaded to (server).

  The user does not like to provide (upload) privacy information to a website (server device) as a third party organization. Also, for the website as a third party organization, in consideration of protection of privacy, troubles may occur. Providing personal information while preventing the occurrence of personal information is very complicated and difficult, and it is difficult to provide a personal information providing service.

  For this reason, conventionally, the use of information recorded and stored using a personal information recording apparatus has been limited to the personal use of the user or the range of the person who is very close to the user.

  However, even if the information is recorded and stored using a personal information recording device, not all the information is highly confidential and can be provided to others when appropriate access is received. Information is also included.

  In view of the situation as described above, the present invention protects personal information by enabling a user to provide personal information acquired and stored to others within the range permitted by the user. However, an object of the present invention is to provide an information acquisition and use management device that can use highly profitable information.

In order to solve the above problems, the invention of claim 1
Information acquisition means for acquiring experience information related to the event experienced by the user;
A data storage unit that stores at least the experience information acquired by the information acquisition unit and a disclosure level for determining a range of disclosure of the experience information corresponding to the experience information;
A communication means for communicating with the counterpart device;
Means for detecting the disclosure level of the counterpart user or counterpart device that has sent the acquisition request when the acquisition request of the experience information stored in the data storage unit is received through the communication means;
The experience information that matches the detected disclosure level of the counterpart device is extracted from the data storage unit by referring to the disclosure level corresponding to the experience information, and the acquisition request is made through the communication means. Means for sending to the counterpart device;
An information acquisition / use management device is provided.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, a public level is added to the acquired experience information and stored in the data storage unit. When there is a search request from the partner user, the disclosure level of the partner is detected, and only information that matches the disclosure level is sent to the partner.

  Therefore, it is possible to provide information acquired by the user personally to other users without uploading it to a server device or the like, and by using the disclosure level, information can be provided to others within the range permitted by the user. Can be provided. As a result, it is possible to provide personal information acquired by the user to others while protecting personal information to be kept secret.

The invention of claim 2
Information acquisition means for acquiring experience information related to the event experienced by the user;
A data storage unit that stores at least the experience information acquired by the information acquisition unit and a disclosure level for determining a range of disclosure of the experience information corresponding to the experience information;
A communication means for communicating with the counterpart device;
Means for detecting the disclosure level of the counterpart user or counterpart device that has sent the exchange request when the exchange request of the experience information stored in the data storage unit is received through the communication means;
The experience information that matches the detected disclosure level of the counterpart device is extracted from the data storage unit by referring to the disclosure level corresponding to the experience information, and the acquisition request is made through the communication means. Means for sending to the counterpart device;
Means for receiving the experience information sent from the counterpart device;
A similarity calculation notifying means for calculating a similarity between the received experience information and the experience information sent to the counterpart device, and notifying a user of the calculated similarity;
An information acquisition / use management device is provided.

  According to the invention of claim 2, the experience information acquired by oneself and the experience information acquired by another person are exchanged while protecting the personal information portion to be kept secret, and the similarity is calculated, For example, experience information can be evaluated with reference to similar points.

The invention of claim 7
An information acquisition means for acquiring experience information related to an event experienced by a user, including an imaging means and an acquisition means for audio information;
At least a data storage unit that stores the experience information acquired by the information acquisition means and a disclosure level for determining a range for disclosing the experience information;
A public level setting unit for storing correspondence between information used for specifying a partner, such as image information and voice information of the partner user, and the public level set and input according to each partner user;
Using the image information obtained by photographing the other user by the imaging means, the sound information obtained from the other user by the sound information obtaining means, and the information stored in the other information storage unit, Partner recognition means for recognizing the partner user;
Communication means for communicating with the device of the counterpart user;
When the experience information acquisition request stored in the data storage unit is received through the communication unit, the experience information acquisition request is issued from the disclosure level setting unit according to the recognition result in the partner recognition unit. Means for detecting the public level corresponding to the other user who sent it,
Means for extracting the experience information suitable for the detected disclosure level from the data storage unit and sending it to the counterpart device that has made the acquisition request through the communication means;
An information acquisition / use management device is provided.

The invention of claim 8
An information acquisition means for acquiring experience information related to an event experienced by a user, including an imaging means and an acquisition means for audio information;
At least a data storage unit that stores the experience information acquired by the information acquisition means and a disclosure level for determining a range for disclosing the experience information;
A public level setting unit for storing correspondence between information used for specifying a partner, such as image information and voice information of the partner user, and the public level set and input according to each partner user;
Using the image information obtained by photographing the other user by the imaging means, the sound information obtained from the other user by the sound information obtaining means, and the information stored in the other information storage unit, Partner recognition means for recognizing the partner user;
Communication means for communicating with the device of the counterpart user;
When the experience information acquisition request stored in the data storage unit is received through the communication unit, the experience information acquisition request is issued from the disclosure level setting unit according to the recognition result in the partner recognition unit. Means for detecting the public level corresponding to the other user who sent it,
Means for extracting the experience information suitable for the detected disclosure level from the data storage unit and sending it to the counterpart device that has made the acquisition request through the communication means;
Means for receiving the experience information sent from the counterpart device;
A similarity calculation notifying means for calculating a similarity between the received experience information and the experience information sent to the counterpart device, and notifying a user of the calculated similarity;
An information acquisition / use management device is provided.

  In the inventions of claims 7 and 8, the partner is identified by the captured image or voice of the partner, and the information provided to the partner is limited by the disclosure level set for the identified partner. it can.

  Therefore, the public level can be specified by the actually used partner. For example, when a public level is set for a device, if the user who uses the device is changed, the set public level may not be appropriate depending on the user who is changed. And in the case of claim 8, such a situation does not occur.

  According to the present invention, information personally acquired by a user can be provided to another user without uploading it to a server device or the like. Information can be provided. As a result, it is possible to provide personal information acquired by the user to others while protecting personal information to be kept secret.

  In addition, according to the present invention, it is possible to efficiently communicate important and similar matters that are similar to each other by exchanging information possessed by other users with information possessed by the user. It becomes possible.

  Embodiments of an information acquisition / use management apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  In the embodiment of the information acquisition / use management apparatus described below, the user carries and uses part or all of the apparatus, and acquires and accumulates information as described below. Are used in the device or communicated with other information acquisition / use management devices to exchange information that can be made public among the mutual information.

  In the information acquisition and use management apparatus of this embodiment, the date and place where a user has “experienced”, information such as video information and audio information at that time, information related to the event experienced by the user (hereinafter, experience) Information). In this case, in this embodiment, for example, the video information and the audio information are recorded synchronously, and a unit from the start point (for example, the start of shooting) to the end point (end of shooting) is recorded as one unit. To do.

  In addition, in the information acquisition and use management device of this embodiment, for the event that has been experienced, for example, in order to make it easier to understand what the user wants to use again among the acquired information, for each unit of experience information. You can enter a mark or enter an evaluation value for the target indicated by the acquired information. The additional information that is entered is used as private input information. Stored and accumulated in association with information.

  For example, when a user purchases a product at a store, the purchase date / time, the location information of the purchased store, the captured image information at the time of product purchase at the store, the sound input information at that time, etc. So-called users, such as evaluations regarding the quality of store locations, evaluations for customer service at this time, evaluations for purchased products, reasons for these evaluations, persons who want to disclose these evaluations, etc. This is a lesson learned from experience and experience, and information to be entered as “memo writing” or “memorandum” is private input information. It is not necessary to input and store the private input information corresponding to the experience information in real time, and it is of course possible to write it corresponding to the experience information at a later time.

  Acquired information for one unit is formed by one unit of experience information and corresponding private input information. In this embodiment, as one piece of private input information, for example, a public level is input and set by the user for one unit of acquired information. Here, the disclosure level is information for determining whether the acquired experience information or private input information is disclosed to other users or is not disclosed. There may be two levels of disclosure.

  However, in this embodiment, it is likely that people often decide whether to make it public or private depending on the intimacy of the relationship, such as family, friends, and colleagues at work. In consideration of the above, as will be described later, the disclosure level is information for determining the range of communication partners permitted to disclose the acquired information.

  For this reason, not only is the user assigned a public level for each unit of acquired information, but it corresponds to the identification information of the partner device (or the partner user) that exchanges the acquired information, that is, the partner of information communication For each of them, a public level such as a family member, a friend, a colleague at work, or the like is set and registered in the information acquisition / use management apparatus. As a result, the information acquisition / use management apparatus can disclose the stored information to the partner apparatus at a disclosure level set for each partner apparatus by the user of the apparatus.

  That is, when the information acquisition / use management device sends out information to another information acquisition / use management device, the information acquisition / use management device detects the release level set for the counterpart device to send out, and there is a release level that matches the release level. The added information is extracted from the stored information and sent to the counterpart device. If the communication partner device is a device that is not registered in the information acquisition / use management device, only the stored information that is specified to be disclosed to “everyone” is sent to the device. To do.

[First Embodiment]
[Conceptual Configuration Diagram (Functional Block Diagram) of Information Acquisition / Use Management Device of First Embodiment]
The information acquisition / use management apparatus according to the first embodiment includes an information acquisition / storage function for acquiring experience information and private input information and storing it in a data storage unit, and experience information and private input stored by the information acquisition / storage function. And an information use function for using the information by the user and other users.

<Description of the information acquisition and storage function unit>
FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating an information acquisition / storage function part (information acquisition / storage function unit) in the information acquisition / use management apparatus according to the first embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, the information acquisition / storage function unit 100 includes an experience information acquisition unit 101, a private input information addition unit 102, a data recognition processing unit 103, and a data definition processing unit via a system bus 120. 104, the data storage unit 105, the public level setting unit 106, and the control unit 107 that controls each unit connected to the system bus 120 are connected to each other.

  The experience information acquisition unit 101 acquires the experience information including the date and time the user is experiencing, the location, image information and audio information at that time, and stores the acquired experience information in the data storage unit 105. And including an imaging unit, a microphone, a GPS receiver unit, and the like.

  In this embodiment, for example, in the case where a moving image is obtained from the imaging unit, the experience information is a unit of information from the start of recording of the moving image to the stop of recording. In addition, when only a still image is obtained from the image pickup unit and audio information from the microphone is recorded for a predetermined time, the information from the recording start to the recording stop of the audio information is set as one information unit. . In the latter case, the number of images during the recording period of the audio information may be one or may be plural.

  Each piece of experience information including image information, audio information, date and time, and location obtained at the time of shooting is stored in the data storage unit 105. In the data storage unit 105, a lump of experience information and private input information to be described later corresponding to this experience information are assigned a storage information ID (IDentification) as one unit of storage information. Accumulated.

  At this time, in this embodiment, image information and audio information are compressed and stored in the data storage unit 105. In this example, the time information records at least a recording start time and a recording stop time. As the location information, the location information at the start of recording, and when the location changes, the location information after the change is recorded along with the time.

  The private input information adding unit 102 accepts input of impressions, evaluations, memos and memorandums related to the experiences experienced by the user, and stores them in the data storage unit 105 in association with the experience information. As described above, in this embodiment, information consisting of a set of experience information and private input information corresponding thereto is used as a storage information unit, and a storage information ID is assigned to each storage information unit. In 105, experience information and private input information are stored. As described above, in this embodiment, a public level is set for each stored information unit as one piece of private input information.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of the structure of stored data stored in the data storage unit 105. In the example of FIG. 3, the storage information ID is automatically assigned as a serial number for each storage information unit. As experience information, compressed image information, compressed audio information, date and time information, location information, and the like are stored. In addition, the private input information in the example of FIG. 3 is assumed to be a product purchase scene or a meal at a restaurant, etc. as an experienced event, such as overall evaluation, location condition evaluation, clerk evaluation, product evaluation, etc. As well as being stored, the public level is stored.

  As described above, in this embodiment, “unpublished” is automatically stored as an initial value, and the public level is rewritten to an appropriate level by the user at a later time as necessary. Private input information can be input in real time together with experience information, and at the time after the experience information is stored, image information and audio information are played back in units of stored information and input while checking experience events. You can also do it.

  The data recognition processing unit 103 performs processing for extracting specific information that is previously extracted and stored and stored from image information, audio information, position information, and the like acquired by the experience information acquisition unit 101 The image recognition unit 111, the voice recognition unit 112, and the text processing unit 113 are included. The speech recognition unit 112 includes a speech recognition processing unit 114, a language processing unit 115, and a keyword extraction unit 116.

  For example, the image recognition unit 111 performs image recognition processing on the image information from the experience information acquisition unit 101, and extracts and stores in advance, such as a person image, a building image, and an image of a portion including characters such as a signboard. An image portion that is determined to be stored is extracted. Of the extracted image parts, an image part including characters such as a signboard is passed to the text recognition processing unit 113. The text recognition processing unit 113 recognizes a character string described on a signboard and generates text data of the character string. The extracted image portion and text data are classified as will be described later, and stored in the data storage unit 105 as a part of the experience information.

  Further, the voice recognition unit 112 performs voice recognition processing on the voice information from the experience information acquisition unit 101 by the voice recognition processing unit 114, recognizes a human voice part such as a human conversation part, and the recognition result is used as a language processing part. 115. The language processing unit 115 converts the speech recognition result into character text data based on the dictionary information provided in the language processing unit 115 and supplies it to the keyword extraction unit 116. The keyword extraction unit 116 includes a keyword dictionary in which words to be extracted as keywords are registered in advance, and extracts registered keywords from text data received from the language processing unit 115 while referring to the keyword dictionary. To. The extracted keywords are classified as described later and stored in the data storage unit 105 as a part of the experience information. When there is no corresponding keyword, the keyword extraction unit 116 outputs that fact.

  The data definition processing unit 104 includes experience information acquired by the experience information acquisition unit 101, private input information input as additional data from the private input information addition unit 102, and a person image extracted by the data recognition processing unit 103. Classify building images, text character data, etc. according to a predetermined definition.

  Here, the definition in the data definition processing unit 104 is determined based on, for example, a person image, family, brother, spouse, work relation, friend, age group, residence area, nationality, and other identification information related to this person image, and image data. Density (high / low), type of building (type of service industry by signboard, etc.), name of building (character string), date / time, day of the week, weather (sunny, rainy, cloudy, etc.) , Temperature (high / low), humidity (high / low), wind (strong / weak), location information (latitude, longitude, altitude), nearest station, common name that can be understood only by users, evaluation value, evaluation target item (For example, if you dine in a restaurant, there are location conditions, store clerk evaluation, product evaluation, store atmosphere, pricing, cooking time, other conditions, etc.), the level of disclosure of these information, etc. Based on these definitions, There are classified. The data storage unit 15 stores data classified based on the above definition.

  The public level setting unit 16 is a public level setting that is information on the correspondence between the public level, which is one of private input information added to the experience information, and another information acquisition / use management apparatus that permits the public at the public level. Information is managed. The user can arbitrarily update the public level setting information.

  For example, as the public level setting information, identification information (for example, a device ID) of one or a plurality of information acquisition / use management devices that are permitted to be published at the public level is registered and stored for a certain public level. As a result, the information acquisition / use management device provides the registered information with the registered public level added as private input information to the device registered in the public level setting information.

  As described above, in this embodiment, since the public level is set using a word representing the intimacy of the human relationship of the user of the communication partner device, the public level setting unit 16 in this example is configured to display the public level. In addition to the correspondence between the communication device and the partner device, the correspondence relationship between the disclosure level and the communication partner (person) can be maintained.

  FIG. 4 shows an example of the public level setting information set by the public level setting unit 106. In this example, the public level is “relative”, “family”, “relative”, “friend” “high school (friend)”, “university (friend)”, “workplace”, “(workplace) boss” , "(Workplace) colleagues", "(workplace) subordinates", etc., and other words that mean human relations. Note that the part enclosed in parentheses is not input when the user sets it.

  In this case, each word at the disclosure level in FIG. 4 has a level with a wider disclosure range (lower secrecy level) toward the left side in FIG. 4, and is sequentially represented by the disclosure level indicated by the word on the right side. It has a hierarchical structure that encompasses the range.

  For example, the range of the public level indicated by the “relative” includes the range of the public level indicated by the “family” and the range of the public level indicated by the “relative”. The range of the public level indicated by “friend” includes the range of the public level indicated by “high school (a friend)” and the range of public level indicated by “a university (a friend)”. The range of the public level indicated by “workplace” includes the range of the public level indicated by “colleague”, the range of public level indicated by “supervisor”, and the range of public level indicated by “subordinate”. “Everyone” means disclosure to all partners, and is the widest disclosure level range.

  In this example, a public level consisting of the words used in FIG. 4 is added to each stored information unit as one piece of private input information. However, as described above, “non-public” is set as an initial setting for each stored information unit, and a public level is added. This “non-disclosure” means that the storage information unit to which it is added is not disclosed to anyone other than the individual user.

  That is, for one unit of acquisition information including experience information and private input information, in this example, “undisclosed” is recorded as the initial value of the disclosure level. The user later rewrites the disclosure level to determine the range of partners permitted to disclose the acquired information.

  It should be noted that human relational words used as the public level are not limited to the example of FIG. 4, and other words can of course be used. Further, the disclosure level is not limited to the case where words indicating human relations as in the above example are used, and it is needless to say that there are various other setting methods.

  For example, the disclosure level where the image information is disclosed and the audio information and private input information are not disclosed is “image disclosure”, the sound information is disclosed, and the image information and private input information is not disclosed. “Sound Disclosure”, neither image information nor voice information is disclosed, but private input information is disclosed as “Private Information Disclosure”, disclosure level of all information disclosed as “All Disclosure”, etc. It is also possible to use a public level.

  Also in this case, the public level setting unit 106 sets public level setting information indicating the correspondence between the counterpart device ID and the public level. Then, as one of the private input information, a public level defined as described above is added to each accumulated information unit.

  Note that the setting of the public level as private input information added to the accumulated information does not necessarily have to be made at the same time as the user's experience. As described above, it may be set.

  As the actual public level information, a unique ID (public level ID) is assigned to each public level, and the public level ID is recorded in the data storage unit 15 together with experience information and private input information. In addition, by storing it as the public level of the public level setting unit, it is possible to identify the public level for the counterpart device when using experience information and private input information.

  The user can also register a new publication level by combining a plurality of publication levels that have already been registered. For example, a new publication level that permits publication to device IDs belonging to “university” and “colleague” Can be registered. Furthermore, the user can also newly register a public level that permits publicity to only one device ID.

  Also, as a disclosure level for a device ID not registered in the disclosure level information, for example, a disclosure level such as “Others” can be newly registered. By providing such a public level, a new public level “unspecified majority” is further provided in combination with the public level “all members” for all device IDs registered in the public level information. Is also possible.

  Furthermore, it is possible to provide a public level “prohibit all” that prohibits the disclosure of all device IDs. Unless the user intentionally sets the public level, the recorded experience information and private input information are disclosed. It is also possible to set the level to “all people prohibited”.

  In addition, the user can set one or more public levels at regular intervals for a collection of experience information and private input information including image information, audio information, position information, evaluation, etc. For example, a specific disclosure level can be set only for audio information in a specific period.

  For example, a public level “friend” is set for image information, position information, restaurant name, and evaluation information recorded from time T1 to time T2, and for audio information recorded from time T1 to time T2. Sets a disclosure level “family” to permit disclosure of all information for device IDs belonging to “family”, but for device IDs belonging to “friends”, voice information (the location thereof) The conversation that took place in That is, even if the information is recorded within the same period, it is possible to set different disclosure levels for each information.

  For example, in the example of the disclosure level in FIG. 4, when information exchange processing as described later is performed with another device A1 whose device ID is “A1”, the information acquisition / use management device is connected to the other device A1. A1 is acquired as the device ID, and it is recognized that this device ID belongs to the disclosure levels “family”, “relative”, and “all”. Thereby, the information acquisition and use management device recognizes that there is all information recorded from time T1 to time T2 when the disclosure level “family” is set as information that can be disclosed to other devices A1. Can do.

  Therefore, when other apparatus A1 is requesting restaurant information, such information can be disclosed. Moreover, not only restaurant information but also information requested at the time T1, for example, can be disclosed in the same manner.

  On the other hand, for example, when information exchange processing is performed with another apparatus E1 whose apparatus ID is E1, the information acquisition and use management apparatus acquires E1 as the apparatus ID, and the apparatus ID is disclosed as “public university”, “ Recognize that it belongs to "friends" and "all". As a result, the information acquisition / use management apparatus, as information that can be disclosed to the other apparatus E1, image information, position information, restaurant name, and evaluation recorded from time T1 to time T2 when the public level “friend” is set. It can be recognized that there is information.

  Therefore, when other apparatus E1 is requesting restaurant information, such information can be disclosed. Moreover, not only restaurant information but also information requested at time T1, for example, can be disclosed in the same manner.

    As described above, by using the disclosure level, specific information or a certain range of information is disclosed to a specific device or a certain range of devices (or the disclosure of specific information or a certain range of information is prohibited) It is possible to flexibly disclose or prohibit the accumulated experience information and private input information to a third party.

<Explanation of Information Use Function Unit>
FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram illustrating an information use function portion (information use function unit) in the information acquisition and use management apparatus according to the embodiment. As shown in FIG. 5, the information utilization function unit 200 includes an information acquisition unit 201, a data recognition processing unit 202, a search input unit 203, a search unit 204, and an information presentation unit 205 via a system bus 220. A data storage unit 206, a public level setting unit 207, a similarity calculation notification unit 208, a communication control unit 209, and a control unit 210 that controls each unit connected to the system bus 220. It is said.

  The information acquisition unit 201 includes an imaging unit, a microphone, and a GPS receiver unit, as in the experience information acquisition unit 101 of the information acquisition / storage function unit described above, and information such as image information, audio information, date / time, and location at that time And the acquired information is supplied to the data recognition processing unit 202. However, in the information use function unit 200, unlike the information acquisition / storage function unit, the information acquired by the information acquisition unit 201 is not recorded in the data storage unit 206.

  The data recognition processing unit 202 includes an image recognition unit 211, a voice recognition unit 212, and a text processing unit 213 similar to the data recognition processing unit 103 of the information acquisition / storage function unit described above. Similar to the voice recognition unit 112, the voice recognition unit 212 includes a voice recognition processing unit 214, a language processing unit 215, and a keyword extraction unit 216. Unlike the information acquisition / storage function unit 100, the recognition result in the data recognition processing unit 202 is not recorded in the data storage unit 206.

  For this reason, the data storage unit 206 of the information utilization function unit 200 stores information including image information, audio information, date / time information, location information, etc. stored in the information acquisition / storage function unit 100 and private input information. Information is accumulated.

  The search input unit 203 receives input from the user of search conditions including keywords defined and classified by the data definition processing unit 104 described above and other search words. The search condition is input by a method in which a list of search conditions is displayed on the display constituting the information presentation unit 205 and the user selects and inputs the search condition, or the user directly inputs the search condition. . The input search condition is passed to the search unit 204.

  The information acquisition unit 201 can also use the above-described experience information acquired at that time as a search condition. In that case, only the information specified by the user from the acquired experience information can be included in the search condition. The information acquisition unit 201 may include a private input information input unit so that the user can input a specific search condition.

  The search unit 204 searches and extracts information that matches the received search condition from the stored information stored in the data storage unit 206. The information extracted by the search unit 204 is presented by the information presentation unit 205 as text data, audio information, image information, or a combination thereof.

  It is also possible to access the other user's device, form a communication path, and pass the search condition together with the search request to the connected counterpart device to obtain the search result from the counterpart device. In particular, when there is no information that matches the search condition in the data storage unit 206 of its own device, it accesses another user's device to form a communication path, and sends a search request including the search condition to the other device. It is better to supply.

  At this time, even if another device detects information that matches the search condition, it is not provided to the accessing device as it is, but is assigned to the device from the device ID of the accessing device. Check the publishing level and provide only information that is allowed to publish at that publishing level.

  The information presenting unit 205 includes a display that displays images and text characters, and a speaker that reproduces sound. The information presentation unit 205 generates display information from image information and text information received through the system bus 220 and displays the display information on the display. It has a function and an audio playback function that converts received audio information into an analog signal and supplies it to a speaker.

  Next, similarly to the disclosure level setting unit 106 of the information acquisition / storage function unit 100, the disclosure level setting unit 207 of the information use function unit 200 permits the disclosure of information at the set disclosure level and each disclosure level. The correspondence relationship with the device ID of the counterpart device is managed.

  Based on the disclosure level managed by the disclosure level setting unit 207 and the device ID of the partner device that is permitted to be disclosed, the communication control unit 209 identifies the disclosure level of the other party with whom communication is to be performed, and sends it to the data storage unit 206. Of the accumulated information consisting of the accumulated experience information and private input information, the accumulated information suitable for the specified disclosure level is transmitted to the partner apparatus.

  The communication control unit 209 also transmits the search conditions input by the search input unit 203 to other terminals, or stores accumulated information and search conditions including experience information and private input information sent from other terminals. To receive.

  Furthermore, the communication control unit 209 holds a communication history with the counterpart device. As the communication history, at least the date and time of the last communication is held for each partner device. FIG. 6 shows an example of communication history information held in the communication control unit 209. In this example, the last communication date and time and the communication content are stored as communication history information corresponding to each partner device ID. Yes.

  When the communication control unit 209 receives a search condition from the counterpart device, the search unit 204 extracts stored information that matches the search condition or similar stored information from the data storage unit 206 according to the control of the control unit 210. Then, the communication control unit 209 extracts only information that is permitted to be transmitted to the counterpart device based on the detected disclosure level of the counterpart device among the information extracted from the data storage unit 206 by the search unit 204. Transmit to the counterpart device.

  The similarity calculation notifying unit 208, according to control by the control unit 210, accumulates information including experience information and private input information transmitted from the communication control unit 209 to the partner device, experience information received from the partner device, and private information. The degree of similarity with the accumulated information consisting of input information is calculated.

  In this example, if experience information and private input information include words or sentences, the number of matching words can be used as the similarity, and if the device has a synonym table The number of similar words can be used as the similarity. Further, if the experience information and the private input information include numerical values, a method can be used in which the similarity is higher as the difference value between corresponding information is smaller as the similarity.

  Note that the similarity calculation notifying unit 208 refers to the communication history held by the communication control unit 209, acquires the date and time when the last communication with the partner device to be communicated, and obtains experience information and private information after that date and time. It is also possible to calculate the similarity only for the target input information.

  The similarity calculation notification unit 208 transfers the calculated similarity information to the information presentation unit 205.

  Based on the similarity information sent from the similarity calculation notifying unit 208, the information presenting unit 205, based on the experience information and private input information transmitted to the counterpart device, has high similarity information and private information. Preferentially present input information to the user.

  Further, in this embodiment, the communication control unit 209 holds the communication contents when the last communication with a specific partner apparatus is performed as shown in FIG. The communication content at the time of this last communication is the maximum information obtained from the counterpart device at that time. Therefore, when the communication control unit 209 communicates with the same counterpart device again next time, the information presenting unit 205 can present the previous communication content with the counterpart device to the user again.

  In this case, the method of presenting the previous communication contents includes the method of presenting in descending order of similarity as described above, the method of presenting in the newest or temporal order, and the position where the information was acquired by the partner device. For example, a method of presenting in order from the current location of the device (or farther away) can be used.

[Configuration Example of Information Acquisition and Use Management Device of Embodiment]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a specific hardware configuration example of the information acquisition / use management apparatus of this embodiment. As described above, the information acquisition / use management apparatus of this embodiment is a portable type.

  Even if the information acquisition / use management apparatus itself is portable, for example, the information acquisition / use management apparatus can be connected to a device equivalent to a home-use personal computer or server device, You may make it the structure accumulate | stored in a stationary personal computer or a server apparatus. In this case, the data accumulating unit (data accumulating unit 105, data accumulating unit 206) of the information acquisition / use management apparatus is separated from the main body of the information acquisition / use management apparatus, and is independently a stationary personal computer or server apparatus. The storage information can be transmitted and received between the main unit of the information acquisition / use management apparatus and the data storage unit via a wireless or wired communication interface.

  The information acquisition / use management apparatus according to this embodiment includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 11, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 12 in which a processing program and the like are stored, and a work area RAM ( A control unit 10 including a random access memory (13) is connected, and the following units whose operation is controlled by the control unit 10 are connected to the system bus. The control unit 10 performs overall control of the entire information acquisition / use management apparatus using the RAM 13 as a work area according to the processing program stored in the ROM 12.

  A GPS (Global Positioning System) reception unit 21, an imaging unit 22, and a microphone 23 constitute an experience information acquisition unit 101 of the information acquisition / storage function unit 100 and an information acquisition unit 201 of the information use function unit 200, and each interface 24 , 25, 26 to the system bus.

  That is, the GPS receiver 21 receives a satellite signal from a GPS satellite, measures the current position, and inputs the measurement result to the system bus 1 through the input interface 24 together with the measurement time.

  The imaging unit 22 includes a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) as an imaging device, images the surroundings of the user, acquires the captured image information, and inputs the acquired captured image information to the system bus 1 through the imaging unit interface 25. .

  In this example, the microphone 23 picks up the surrounding sound and inputs the sound signal to the system bus 1 through the sound input interface 26 when the photographing unit 22 is photographing the surroundings. The audio input interface 26 converts an analog audio signal from the microphone 23 into digital audio data and inputs the digital audio data to the system bus 1.

  The acquisition timing of experience information including image information, audio information, position information, and the like may be after the user has set the information acquisition / storage mode, for example, by pressing a predetermined button to acquire experience information. However, in many cases, the user cannot consciously perform the mode setting operation itself.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, when a predetermined event such as a change in the environment around the user occurs, an information acquisition / storage mode start trigger is generated, and the captured image, audio information, measurement position information, etc. It is taken in and stored in the acquisition / use management device. For example, the information acquisition / accumulation mode start trigger is generated when a sudden loud sound is detected or when a speech keyword such as “welcome” is detected by the speech recognition unit 43 described later. . For this reason, the voice recognition unit 43 is always in an activated state.

  In this embodiment, the user can select in advance at which keyword the shooting start trigger should be generated. That is, for example, a list of keywords for generating a shooting start trigger is presented to the user, and the user can select a keyword from the list.

  At this time, measurement time information is also taken into the information acquisition and use management device from the GPS receiving unit 21 and stored.

  When the user presses the start button of the information acquisition / accumulation mode, for example, a start trigger is generated at predetermined time intervals to start shooting in the imaging unit 21, and the captured image is recorded as audio information or position information. At the same time, it can of course be taken into the information acquisition / use management device.

  Further, in this embodiment, the position information from the GPS receiver 21 is, for example, at least information at the time of shooting start, and thereafter only when the position information changes by a predetermined distance during shooting. Capture with information. It should be noted that during shooting, the position information from the GPS receiver 21 may be captured and stored at regular time intervals.

  The evaluation input key 31 constitutes the private input information adding unit 102 of the information acquisition / storage function unit 100 and is connected to the system bus 1 through the key input interface 33.

  As described above, the evaluation input key 31 is used by the user to input an evaluation of a subject to be photographed, for example, in the case of a restaurant, an evaluation of a provided dish, an evaluation of a store, an evaluation of a clerk, and the like. It is. As the evaluation input key 31, an operation key such as a simple push button key that associates the number of presses with the evaluation value or a numeric keypad that can directly input the evaluation value is used. In this embodiment, the evaluation input key 31 is a simple push button key, and given the evaluation of best, good, normal, bad, worst, etc. according to the number of times the push button key is pressed.

  The operation input unit 32 constitutes a public level input unit of the public level setting unit 106 of the information acquisition / storage function unit 100 and a search input unit 203 of the information use function unit 200, and is operated through the operation input unit interface 34. It is connected to the system bus 1.

  The operation input unit 32 can be configured by a character input unit that directly inputs a disclosure level and a search condition as a character input. A list of search condition candidates to be displayed can be displayed, and a cursor or a determination key for selecting and determining a specific disclosure level and search condition from the list can also be configured.

  As described above, the evaluation input from the evaluation input key 31 and the public level setting input from the operation input unit 32 do not necessarily have to be made at the same time as the acquisition of the user's experience information. You can later work on the information you have acquired about the event.

  Although not shown, the information acquisition / storage management device has a configuration for acquiring weather information such as temperature, humidity, and weather in addition to the configuration described above as a configuration corresponding to the experience information acquisition unit 101. . As a configuration for acquiring weather information such as temperature, humidity, and weather, for example, weather that is regularly distributed in addition to base station information from a base station, which is already realized by a mobile phone, for example. A method of receiving and acquiring information or the like is employed.

  Note that a simple temperature sensor and humidity sensor may be provided in the information acquisition / use management apparatus to acquire the information. In addition, as for the position information, the GPS receiver 21 and the input interface 24 can be omitted by using information sent from the base station.

  The image recognition unit 41, the sentence recognition unit 42, and the voice recognition unit 43 constitute the data recognition processing unit 103 of the information acquisition / storage function unit 100 and the data recognition processing unit 202 of the information use function unit 200, and each includes a system bus. 1 is connected.

  The image recognition unit 41 performs image recognition processing on the captured image data acquired from the imaging unit 22, and performs processing for recognizing and extracting an image defined as to be recognized, for example, as described above. Further, the text recognition unit 42 extracts a character / symbol information portion included in the image based on the captured image data acquired from the imaging unit 22 and executes a text recognition process on the extracted character / symbol information portion. In addition, a process of recognizing character strings and symbols in the image and extracting names of buildings and signs as text data is performed.

  The speech recognition unit 43 includes a speech recognition processing unit 44, a language processing unit 45, and a keyword extraction unit 46. The speech recognition processing unit 44 performs speech recognition processing on speech data input through the microphone 23 and the speech input interface 26. Then, a human voice signal is extracted from the voice signal, the extracted human voice signal is converted into text data by the language processing unit 45, and a keyword registered in advance is extracted from the text data by the keyword extraction unit 51. To do.

  The data definition processing unit 51 corresponds to the data definition processing unit 104 of the information acquisition / storage function unit 100 described above and constitutes a search unit 204 of the information use function unit 200 and is connected to the system bus 1.

  As described above, the data definition processing unit 51 defines the data extracted from the image recognition unit 41, the sentence recognition unit 42, and the voice recognition unit 43. That is, the data extracted from the image recognition unit 41, the sentence recognition unit 42, and the voice recognition unit 43 are classified according to a predetermined definition and written in the database unit 52 according to the control of the control unit 10.

  Further, the data definition processing unit 51 searches for information from the database unit 52 according to the search condition. As the search condition, the search condition specified by the user among the recognition results from the image recognition unit 41, the text recognition unit 42, and the voice recognition unit 43 in addition to what is input from the operation input unit 32 by the user. You can also.

  The database unit 52 is configured by, for example, a hard disk device, and in this database unit 52, private input information including public level information in addition to experience information including captured image data, audio data, position information, time information, and the like, Stored in correspondence with experience information.

  The database unit 52 stores image data and text data in which information about the image data is described in association with each other. For example, the name, address, contact information, age, and the like of the person are stored in association with the image data of the person's face. Furthermore, if there is information on the person, such as family, brother, spouse, work-related person, friend, etc., it is stored together.

  The image recognition unit 41, the sentence recognition unit 42, and the image data extracted by the speech recognition unit 43, the person determined from the text data and the voice data, the type of building, the name of the building (character string), etc. The data is classified according to the definition of the definition processing unit 104, compared with the data stored in the database unit 52, and data not registered based on the comparison result is accumulated in the database unit 52 as new data.

  The data defined by the data definition processing unit 51 is model-converted according to the data model, and is stored in the database unit 52 using a database management system (DBMS (Database Management System)). As an example of model conversion, for example, a method of defining each data in a tabular format and managing it using a relational database (RDB) as a DBMS, or other methods can be used. The experience information and private input information related to the events experienced by the user stored in the database unit 52 can be edited later by the user's intention.

  The public level setting unit 53 constitutes a public level information holding unit of the public level setting unit 106 and the public level setting unit 207, and is connected to the system bus 1. As described above, the disclosure level setting unit 53 manages the disclosure level setting information that is information on the correspondence between the disclosure level and other information acquisition / use management devices that permit disclosure at the disclosure level.

  As public level setting information, in this embodiment, for one public level, identification information (for example, device ID) of one or a plurality of information acquisition / use management devices that are permitted to be public at the public level is registered. I remember it. In this embodiment, the disclosure level setting unit 53 has a communication history with another information acquisition / use management device indicated by the device ID corresponding to the device ID set corresponding to the disclosure level information. Information is stored. Therefore, in the specific example of FIG. 1, the disclosure level setting unit 53 also has a role of a communication history storage unit of the communication control unit 209 of the information use function unit 200, and the disclosure level information shown in FIG. The communication history information shown in FIG. 6 is stored in a state of being associated with each other with a common partner apparatus ID.

  The communication interface 54 communicates with other information acquisition / use management devices via a telephone line or the Internet, and acquires necessary information from a predetermined server device on the Internet. A part of the communication control unit 209 of the function unit 200 is configured.

  The wireless communication unit 55 communicates with other information acquisition and utilization devices using radio waves, infrared rays, and the like, and is connected to the system bus 1 through the wireless communication unit controller 56. The wireless communication unit 55 also constitutes a part of the communication control unit 209 of the information use function unit 200.

  In the information acquisition / storage management device of this embodiment, when a user makes a wireless connection request to the information acquisition / storage management device of another user, the other information acquisition / storage management device and the wireless communication unit 55 is used to automatically establish a wireless connection.

  In addition, when two users possessing the information acquisition / storage management device of this embodiment come close to each other, each information acquisition / storage management device is configured to perform wireless communication if it is set to be automatically connected to the wireless connection. The unit 55 can be used to automatically establish a wireless connection with each other.

  The similarity calculation notification unit 57 corresponds to the similarity calculation notification unit 208 of the information use function unit 200, and is an accumulation of experience information and private input information transmitted to the counterpart device through the communication interface 54 or the wireless communication unit 55. The degree of similarity between the information and the stored information made up of experience information and private input information received from the counterpart device is calculated. Then, according to the calculated similarity, accumulated information to be presented to the user is generated, and in this example, the generated similar accumulated information is displayed on the liquid crystal display 61 or emitted from the speaker 62 as reproduced sound. To do.

  The liquid crystal display 61 and the speaker 62 constitute an information presentation unit 205 of the information utilization function unit 200 and are connected to the system bus 1 via a display interface 63 and an audio output interface 64, respectively.

  The display interface 63 generates display data from the image data acquired from the system bus 1 and displays an image corresponding to the image data on the liquid crystal display 61.

  The audio output interface 64 returns the audio data acquired through the system bus 1 to an analog audio signal, amplifies it, supplies it to the speaker 64, and emits reproduced audio from the speaker 64.

[Example of Information Acquisition / Storage Operation by Information Acquisition / Use Management Device of Embodiment]
Next, an example of the information acquisition / storage operation by the information acquisition / use management apparatus of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. As described above, the operation of the flowchart of FIG. 7 is executed by the CPU 11 of the control unit 10 using the RAM 13 as a work area according to the processing program of the ROM 12.

  The CPU 11 waits for the occurrence of the information acquisition / storage mode start trigger (step S1). When the CPU 11 detects the start trigger, the CPU 11 activates the GPS receiver 21 and the imaging unit 22 and enters a state in which an audio signal from the microphone 23 is captured (step S1). S2). Then, the captured image data from the imaging unit 22 and the audio data from the microphone 23 are written in the database unit 52, and the measurement position information from the GPS receiving unit 21 is written in the database unit 52 together with the measurement time (step S3).

  Accompanied by this captured image data acquisition and voice data acquisition, the image recognition unit 41, the sentence recognition unit 42, and the voice recognition unit 43 included in the data recognition processing unit 103 perform recognition processing on the image data and the voice data ( Step S4).

  That is, if it is image data, the image recognition part 41 performs an image recognition process with respect to the captured image data acquired from the imaging part 22 in step S4. At this time, if the image data includes character information, the text recognition unit 42 executes text recognition processing on the captured image data acquired from the imaging unit 22 in step S4. For example, a character string or symbol in an image such as a sign such as a sign is recognized, and the names of buildings and signs are extracted as text data.

  In the case of voice data, in step S4, the voice data acquired through the microphone 23 and the voice input interface 26 is subjected to voice recognition processing by the voice recognition processing unit 44 of the voice recognition unit 43, and the language processing unit 45. Then, the recognized speech information is converted into text data, and a keyword is extracted by the keyword extraction unit 46 from the converted text data.

  The data recognition result extracted as described above is accepted as experience information and temporarily held (step S5).

  Next, the CPU 11 determines whether, for example, an evaluation value input through the evaluation input key 31 or private input information such as a store name or a place name input through the operation input unit 32 has been input (step S6). . As described above, the private input information can be input at a later time, but can also be input at the time of acquiring the experience information, so that the input is monitored.

  If it is determined in step S6 that private input information has been input, the private input information is received and temporarily held (step S7), and then the process proceeds to step S8. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S6 that no private input information has been input, step S7 is bypassed and the process proceeds to step S8.

  In step S8, the experience information and private input information acquired by data recognition are classified according to the definition in the data definition processing unit 51. Then, the classified experience information and private input information are stored in the database unit 52 together with the captured image data, audio data, position information, and date / time information (step S9).

  Next, it is determined whether or not an information acquisition / storage mode end trigger has occurred (step S10). If it is determined that an end trigger has not occurred, the process returns to step S3, and the information acquisition / storage processing after step S3 is repeated. . If it is determined in step S10 that an end trigger has occurred, the driving of the imaging unit 22, the GPS receiving unit 21, etc. is stopped (step S11), and the information acquisition / accumulation mode in FIG. 7 ends.

  Note that, as described above, the storage information ID is assigned to the storage information including imaging data, audio data, position information, date and time information, other experience information, and private input information stored in the database unit 52. The accumulated information can be divided later, and the accumulated information ID can be reassigned to each of the divided information. As described above, the private input information is additionally input and accumulated at the subsequent time point.

  According to the above processing, the user's experience information and private input information are arranged so that they can be easily searched and stored in the database unit 52.

  An example of the experience information acquired at this time is shown in FIG. Each of the experience information is assigned an experience information number (experience information No.) in the order of the acquired information, for example. As shown in FIG. 8, the acquired time information (date information) associated with this experience information number is represented as “200307221730” if it is 17:30 on July 22, 2003. Information is stored.

  If the position information is (latitude 60 ° 59′58 ″, longitude 135 ° 45′36 ″, altitude 546 m), it is registered as “605958, 1354536, 54613545536, 546”.

  In addition, in the example of FIG. 8, information on incidental conditions such as information such as weather, temperature, and humidity transmitted from the base station is added.

  Furthermore, if there is a fact that has been clarified from information acquired before the acquisition of this experience information, it is also possible to add the information. As an example, for example, information on a companion can be cited.

  Note that the time information acquired here may be accurate time information included in the data from the GPS receiver 21, for example, an expression such as “2003/07/22 night”, or simply “daytime”. It may be an abstract expression such as “”, “night”, “holiday”, “weekday”.

  Similarly, the location information may be represented by a station name, a building name, a facility name, a common name familiar to the user, or the like instead of the latitude and longitude. This is because when the user searches with the information use function of the information acquisition / use management apparatus, the information is extracted as information that is easier to understand and use.

  Next, FIG. 9 shows an example of private input information input by the user. The private input information is registered in association with the acquired experience information, and a private input information number (private input information No.) corresponding to the experience information number is given. As described above, the experience information and the private input information constitute a part of the stored information, and the stored information ID is assigned to the stored information as described above.

  The private input information in the example of FIG. 9 is, for example, input in response to experience information in a restaurant. Overall evaluation, location conditions, clerk evaluation, product evaluation, store atmosphere, price setting The evaluation value such as “good”, “bad”, “normal”, etc., and the disclosure level for each of the cooking time and other conditions. In the example of FIG. 9, the disclosure level is “friend”.

  As described above, the timing at which the user manually inputs the private input information can be input in real time when acquiring the experience information, or can be added after the acquisition of the experience information. Also, for example, when the user finishes the experience at the restaurant, that is, when the user moves from the restaurant to another place, the information acquisition / use management device generates a sound to alert the user or vibrates. For example, the user may be prompted to input private input information. In addition to this, for example, a mode in which an experience information acquisition operation or private input information input operation can be led by a user may be prepared in the information acquisition and use management apparatus.

[Information retrieval operation as one of information usage functions (local device)]
Next, an information search process, which is one example of using the stored information stored in the information acquisition / use management apparatus as described above, will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Here, a case where the user searches for information related to a restaurant will be described as an example.

  When an information retrieval start instruction is given, the flowchart of FIG. 10 starts. In this case, as a method for inputting search conditions for information search, for example, a method of displaying a list of search conditions on the screen of the liquid crystal display 61 and allowing the user to select from among them is generally considered. In the embodiment, a method is adopted in which the user inputs a search condition by voice input according to the guidance voice.

  In addition, as a method of inputting the search condition by voice input, a method in which the search keyword is directly pronounced by the user may be used, or a list of search conditions is presented on the screen of the liquid crystal display 61 described above, and A method of having the user pronounce the search keyword inside may be used.

  First, when an information search start instruction is issued, the CPU 11 displays a message prompting the user to input a search condition voice on the screen of the liquid crystal display 61 and emits sound from the speaker 62 (step S21). Next, it is determined whether or not voice input from the user has been detected in response to this message (step S22).

  When the voice input is confirmed in step S22, the voice recognition unit 43 executes voice recognition processing and extracts keywords (step S23). For example, if the user pronounces “restaurant with good atmosphere”, the CPU 11 performs speech recognition processing on the voice input and extracts keywords “atmosphere”, “good”, and “restaurant” in step S23. Then, a search condition as shown in FIG. 11A is recognized from the extracted keyword. That is, in this example, “atmosphere” and “location” are recognized as the search condition items, and the detection keywords are “good” for the item “atmosphere” and “restaurant” for the item “location”, respectively. Is recognized.

  Next, the CPU 11 activates the GPS receiving unit 21 and the image capturing unit 22 and takes in an audio signal from the microphone 23 (step S24), and positioning position data and positioning time information from the GPS receiving unit 21, and imaging. The captured image data from the unit 22 and the voice data from the microphone 23 are captured as current information, the captured image data is supplied to the image recognition unit 41 and the sentence recognition unit 42, and the voice data is supplied to the voice recognition unit 43. (Step S25).

  Next, the CPU 11 causes the image recognition unit 41, the sentence recognition unit 42, and the voice recognition unit 43 to perform recognition processing (step S26). Then, the CPU 11 acquires the keyword and image information extracted from the current information as the recognition result as a search condition (step S27).

  That is, if it is image data, the image recognition processing unit 41 performs image recognition processing on the captured image data acquired from the imaging unit 22. When character information is included in the captured image, the text recognition unit 42 performs text recognition processing on the captured image data. Are recognized, and the names of buildings and signs are extracted as text data.

  In the case of voice data, the voice data acquired from the microphone 23 is transferred to the voice recognition unit 43, subjected to voice recognition processing by the voice recognition processing unit 44, and information recognized by the language processing unit 45. Is converted into text data, and the keyword extraction unit 51 extracts keywords from the text data. Note that GPS data and the like from the GPS receiving unit 21 are acquired as search conditions as they are.

  An example of keywords and the like extracted from the current information at this time is shown in FIG. The keywords extracted from the current information are temporarily stored in the RAM 13 in association with the current information number (current information No.). As date information, for example, April 8, 2004, 18:00 If it is 3O minutes, it is expressed as “200404081830”, and the positional information is, for example, “585 920”, “58 ° 59′20” latitude, 135 ° 42′40 ”longitude, and 520 m altitude. 1354240 "and" 520 "are registered. In addition, for example, information on incidental conditions such as weather information transmitted from the base station is acquired.

  Next, the CPU 11 uses the data definition processing unit 51 serving as the search unit based on the search condition including the search condition input by the user accepted in step S23 and the keyword extracted in step S27, to the database unit. An information search is performed on the stored information 52, and information including the search condition or information similar to the search condition is extracted from the database unit 52. In order to extract information retrieved by the user from the database unit 52, the above-described database management system is used (step S28).

  At this time, as shown in FIG. 11C, search conditions for information search in step S28 are based on the input search conditions in FIG. 11A and the extracted conditions in FIG. 11B. It will be.

  As a search method, when a case where all items of information stored in the database are all found is found, priority is given to the evaluation value for the experience that has been manpowered by the user. Extract from those with high matching degree. It is also possible to search for other experience information having an evaluation value specified by a search condition manually operated by the user.

  Information extracted as a search result in the data definition processing unit 51 as the search unit as described above is presented to the user by text data, voice guidance, image display, or a combination thereof (step S29). .

  An example of data presented to the user as a search result is shown in FIG. Note that FIG. 12A shows search conditions input by the user, and FIG. 12B shows search conditions extracted from the current information. FIG. 12C shows search results extracted based on these search conditions.

  In the example of FIG. 12C, three search result numbers “001”, “002”, and “003” are extracted and displayed. The display order here gives priority to the contents searched based on the search condition input by the user.

  For example, if the user inputs “close” as a search condition, the information “close” from the current position is given priority over the highly evaluated information.

  In addition to the above search method, for example, data recorded in schedule management software can be used as a search condition.

  For example, when there is a plan to go to a certain place at a certain date and time, if this schedule is registered in the schedule management software, the optimal way to go, departure target time, etc. are extracted from the database unit 52, and the user in advance Can also be presented.

[Information exchange processing operation with other devices as one of information use functions]
Next, the user communicates with the information acquisition / storage management device of another user using the information acquisition / storage management device described above, and the storage information including his / her own experience information and private input information, and the experience of the other user Information exchange processing for extracting common points with information and private input information will be described with reference to FIGS.

  In this example, when two users possessing the information acquisition / storage management device of this embodiment having the above-described configuration approach each other, when one user performs an input operation of an information exchange request, the information acquisition / storage The management apparatus enters a state of wireless connection with the other information acquisition / storage management apparatus using the wireless communication unit 55, and executes the processing shown in the flowchart of FIG.

  That is, first, the CPU 11 confirms a wireless connection with another information acquisition / storage management device (hereinafter referred to as a partner device) (step S31). After confirming the wireless connection, the CPU 11 sends an information exchange request including the device ID of the own device to the partner device (step S32). In response to this, since the device ID of the partner device is sent from the partner device, the device ID of the partner device is received (step S33).

  Then, the CPU 11 searches the disclosure level setting unit 53 based on the received device ID of the counterpart device, and extracts the disclosure level set corresponding to the device ID of the counterpart device and the communication history information. (Step S34).

  Then, using the extracted disclosure level and communication history information, information to be sent to the counterpart device is searched from the database unit 52 (step S35). That is, in step S 34, the database unit 52 is searched using the extracted disclosure level as a search condition, and accumulated information including experience information and private input information matching the disclosure level is extracted from the database unit 52. Furthermore, using the communication history information acquired in step S34, information is extracted from the database unit 52, for example, limited to those after the last communication with the counterpart device.

  Next, the CPU 11 transmits the accumulated information including the extracted experience information and private input information to the counterpart device as described above (step S36).

  Next, stored information composed of experience information and private input information extracted and sent in the information exchange process performed in the counterpart device is received (step S37). The information transmitted in step S36 is own experience information and private input information, and the information received in step S37 is other person's experience information and private input information.

  Next, the CPU 11 calculates the similarity between the information transmitted in step S36 and the information received in step S37 by the similarity calculation notifying unit 57 (step S38). As described above, if the experience information and the private input information include words or sentences, the similarity is calculated using the number of matching words as the similarity. In the case of having a synonym table, the number of similar words is calculated as the similarity. If the experience information and the private input information include numerical values, the similarity is calculated using the difference value between them.

  Next, the CPU 11 presents, to the user, information having a high degree of similarity among the stored information including the experience information and private input information transmitted to the counterpart device (step S39). Here, in step S39, all of the received experience information and private input information from the partner device can be presented together, but experience information with a low similarity from the partner device or private information that is not in common at all. It is desirable not to disclose personal information of the communication partner more than necessary by not presenting the input information.

  In step S39, the experience information and private input information transmitted to the counterpart device and their similarity may be presented. In addition, it is possible to present information included in the communication history information acquired in step S34.

  Next, the processing operation on the device side that has received the information exchange request will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, the CPU 11 confirms a wireless connection with an information acquisition / storage management device (hereinafter referred to as an information exchange request device) that has requested information exchange (step S41). When the wireless connection is confirmed, the CPU 11 receives an information exchange request including the device ID from the information exchange requesting device (step S42). Next, the own apparatus sends its own apparatus ID to the information exchange requesting apparatus (step S43).

  Then, the CPU 11 searches the public level setting unit 53 based on the received device ID of the counterpart device, and sets the public level set corresponding to the device ID of the information exchange requesting device, the communication history information, Is extracted (step S44).

  Then, using the extracted disclosure level and communication history information, information to be sent to the information exchange requesting device is searched from the database unit 52 (step S45). That is, the database unit 52 is searched using the disclosure level extracted in step S44 as a search condition, and accumulated information including experience information and private input information matching the disclosure level is extracted from the database unit 52. Furthermore, using the communication history information acquired in step S44, information is extracted from the database unit 52, for example, only after the last communication with the information exchange requesting device.

  Next, the CPU 11 transmits the accumulated information including the extracted experience information and private input information to the information exchange requesting device as described above (step S46). Next, storage information consisting of experience information and private input information extracted and sent by the information exchange processing performed in the information exchange requesting device is received (step S47).

  Next, the CPU 11 calculates the similarity between the information transmitted in step S46 and the information received in step S47 by the similarity calculation notification unit 57 as described above (step S48).

  Next, the CPU 11 presents, to the user, information having a high degree of similarity among the stored information including experience information and private input information transmitted to the information request exchange device (step S49). Here, in step S49, it is possible to present all of the received experience information and private input information from the information exchange requesting device. It is desirable not to disclose personal information of the communication partner more than necessary by not presenting non-common private input information.

  Further, in step S49, experience information and private input information transmitted to the information exchange requesting device and their similarity may be presented. In addition, it is possible to present information included in the communication history information acquired in step S44.

  An example of data presented to the user as a result of the information exchange process is shown in FIG. In this example, the data presented to the user is the user's own experience information and private input information, and the partner's experience information and private input information are not presented.

  In the example shown in FIG. 15, the user obtains from the presented experience information and private input information, the information acquisition / use management apparatus possessed by the other party has experience information and private input information of 80% similarity. You can recognize that it is recorded. That is, the user can know that the communication partner has an experience similar to the presented experience by 80%.

  Through the information exchange process as described above, the experience information and private input information of the user who possesses the information acquisition / use management device is similar to the experience information and private input information of other users who possess the information acquisition / use management device. The degree can be calculated, and both sides can quickly find common points with the communication partner for each experience information and private input information. For this reason, it is possible to efficiently communicate more important matters and more interesting matters that are common to both parties from the information on the degree of similarity presented.

[Information search operation as one of the information use functions (for other device)]
The information acquisition / use management apparatus can search the user's own experience information and private input information by the information search process described with reference to FIG. 10. Further, the information acquisition / use management apparatus possessed by other users It is also possible to search for experience information and private input information of other users. A search request process of other user experience information and private input information and a reception process of the counterpart apparatus corresponding thereto in the information acquisition / use management apparatus will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.

  In this example, when two users who have the information acquisition / storage management device of this embodiment having the above-described configuration approach each other, when one user performs an input operation of an information search request to another device. The information acquisition / storage management device is wirelessly connected to the other information acquisition / storage management device using the wireless communication unit 55, and enters a state of transmitting a search request to the other device. A search request process shown in FIG. 17 is executed, and another apparatus (hereinafter referred to as a partner apparatus) that has received the search request executes the process shown in the flowchart of FIG.

  That is, first, the CPU 11 confirms a wireless connection with another information acquisition / storage management device (hereinafter referred to as a partner device) (step S51). After confirming the wireless connection, the CPU 11 sends an information search request including the device ID of the own device to the partner device (step S52).

  Next, the CPU 11 activates the GPS receiving unit 21 and the imaging unit 22 and enters a state in which an audio signal from the microphone 23 is captured (step S53), positioning position data and positioning time information from the GPS receiving unit 21, and imaging. The captured image data from the unit 22 and the voice data from the microphone 23 are captured as current information, the captured image data is supplied to the image recognition unit 41 and the sentence recognition unit 42, and the voice data is supplied to the voice recognition unit 43. Then, the image recognition unit 41, the sentence recognition unit 42, and the speech recognition unit 43 are caused to execute a recognition process (step S54). And CPU11 acquires the keyword and image information extracted from the present information as the recognition result as a search condition (step S55).

  That is, if it is image data, the image recognition processing unit 41 performs image recognition processing on the captured image data acquired from the imaging unit 22. When character information is included in the captured image, the text recognition unit 42 performs text recognition processing on the captured image data. Are recognized, and the names of buildings and signs are extracted as text data.

  In the case of voice data, the voice data acquired from the microphone 23 is transferred to the voice recognition unit 43, subjected to voice recognition processing by the voice recognition processing unit 44, and information recognized by the language processing unit 45. Is converted into text data, and the keyword extraction unit 51 extracts keywords from the text data. Note that GPS data and the like from the GPS receiving unit 21 are acquired as search conditions as they are.

  Next, the CPU 11 sends a search condition including the keyword extracted in step S55 to the partner apparatus (step S56).

  The counterpart device performs a search according to this search condition, and only information that matches the disclosure level of the requesting device set in the counterpart device, as will be described later, is retrieved from the counterpart device. Will be sent.

  Therefore, the CPU 11 receives the search result information sent from the counterpart device (step S57), and presents the received information to the user by text data, voice guidance, image display, or a combination thereof. (Step S58).

  Next, the process of the counterpart apparatus corresponding to this search request process will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, the CPU 11 confirms a wireless connection with an information acquisition / storage management device (hereinafter referred to as an information search request device) that has requested information search (step S61). After confirming the wireless connection, the CPU 11 receives an information search request including the device ID from the information search requesting device (step S62).

  Next, the CPU 11 searches the disclosure level setting unit 53 based on the received device ID of the information search requesting device, and extracts the disclosure level set corresponding to the device ID of the information search requesting device. (Step S63). Next, information on search conditions sent from the information search requesting device is received (step S64).

  Then, the CPU 11 searches the database unit 52 using the received search condition, extracts the accumulated information that matches the search condition, and responds to the information search request device detected in step S63 from the extracted information. Only information that conforms to the set public level is further extracted as transmission information (step S65). Then, the extracted transmission information is transmitted to the information search requesting device (step S66). Thus, the process of FIG. 17 ends.

  As described above, according to the information acquisition / use management apparatus of this embodiment, the information acquisition / storage function unit 100 stores the experience information related to the event that the user has experienced together with the private input information that recalls the experience. be able to.

  Further, in the information use function unit 200 of the information acquisition / use management apparatus of this embodiment, it is obtained by searching for desired experience information and private input information from the data storage unit 206 according to the search condition. Since the information obtained is information experienced by the user as compared with a keyword search method using a network such as the Internet, it is possible to extract information that is efficient and highly profitable.

  Further, according to the information acquisition / use management apparatus of the above-described embodiment, the experience information and private input information of the user who owns the apparatus, and the experience information and private input information of other users who possess the apparatus By calculating similarity, both sides can quickly find common points with their peers in their experience information and private input information, and efficiently communicate more important or more interesting things common to both parties. Can be performed.

  Further, by restricting the information sent to the counterpart device based on the disclosure level set by the user, personal information can be prevented from being unnecessarily disclosed.

  If experience information and private input information that are not similar to each other are not presented to both users, the protection of personal information can be further strengthened.

[Second Embodiment]
In the above-described first embodiment, when an information exchange request or an information search request is made, when a communication path is connected between two devices and wirelessly connected, the device ID of the counterpart device or the device ID of the requesting device The disclosure level set in the partner device is recognized based on the device ID acquired in each device.

  However, the information acquisition and use management apparatus of the second embodiment uses the recognition function to identify the user itself by using the functions of image recognition and voice recognition, and Information is exchanged using the public level set in the above.

  As a result, in the second embodiment, when the person who has the information acquisition / use management device at the time is different from the owner of the device indicated by the device ID, the device ID is set for the device ID. It is possible to prevent the personal information from being disclosed to the different person carelessly at the public level.

<Explanation of the information usage function unit (when identifying the person to communicate with by image recognition, etc.)>
FIG. 18 is a functional block diagram showing an information use function portion (information use function unit 200) in the information acquisition and use management device of the second embodiment. As shown in FIG. 18, in the information use function unit 200 of the second embodiment, the data recognition processing unit 202 is the same image recognition unit 211 as the data recognition processing unit 202 of the first embodiment described above. The voice recognition unit 212 and the text processing unit 213 are provided, and the partner recognition processing unit 217 is further provided. Others are the same as those in the first embodiment.

  The partner recognition processing unit 217 uses the recognition results of the image recognition unit 211 and the voice recognition unit 212, and is used by other users who try to exchange experience information and private input information. Try to identify. That is, the partner recognition processing unit 217 of the information use function unit 200 of the second embodiment stores in advance the person imaged by the imaging unit or the person who pronounced the sound collected by the microphone in the information acquisition / use management device. It is specified by comparing the characteristics with the image information and voice information (voice information) of the person registered and stored.

  For this reason, in the data storage unit 206 of the information use function unit 200 of the second embodiment, experience information including image information, sound information, date / time information, location information, etc. stored by the information acquisition / storage function unit 100, private information In order to identify other users who have an information acquisition / use management device with the same configuration as that of the second embodiment and can exchange experience information by data recognition in addition to accumulated information consisting of target input information In the second embodiment, the person specifying information is stored in association with word information indicating a human relationship with another user of the data recognition of the other user. That is, the data storage unit 206 also serves as a partner information storage unit in the second embodiment.

  The person identification information stored in the data storage unit 206 for identifying other users by data recognition includes the person image (face, upper body image, etc.) of the other party acquired by the experience information acquisition unit 101 in advance. Feature information necessary for the person recognition extracted from the information, voice information (voice information), and the like.

  When the person identification information registered and stored in the data storage unit 206 is close to the user who owns the information acquisition / use management device, the data recognition processing unit 202 The partner recognition processing unit 217 extracts the image and utterance of the person from the image information and voice information obtained by the information acquisition unit 201, and stores the extracted image and voice characteristics and the data storage unit 206. The person can be identified by comparing with the information for identifying the person.

  As described above, in the embodiment of the present invention, the public level stored in the public level setting unit 207 uses a word indicating a human relationship with a user who uses the device. Therefore, in the data storage unit 206, the word information indicating the human relationship with the user stored in association with the person specifying information is the word indicating the public level stored in the public level setting unit 207. It is supposed to correspond. For this reason, when the partner recognition processing unit 217 of the data recognition processing unit 202 can recognize the person of another user who is present, the disclosure level corresponding to the other user is set to the information use function unit 200. Can be detected.

  Therefore, when the data recognition processing unit 202 can identify a partner who is present on the spot, the disclosure level of the partner can be directly known. Therefore, on the spot, it is possible to communicate with the counterpart device and exchange information that matches each other's disclosure level.

  In this case, in the data storage unit 206, the information acquisition / use management apparatus possessed by the identified person instead of the word information indicating the human relationship with the user corresponding to the person identifying information. The correspondence with the ID is stored, and when the person is identified by the partner recognition processing unit 217, the device ID of the corresponding information acquisition / use management device is acquired, and the disclosure level setting unit 207 uses the device ID. Public level can be extracted. Also with this method, when performing communication between devices, it becomes possible to identify and communicate with each other between the information acquisition and use management devices without any operation by the user.

  In the second embodiment, the communication control unit 209 recognizes the disclosure level managed by the disclosure level setting unit 207 and the device ID of the partner device that permits the disclosure or the partner recognition processing unit 217 of the data recognition processing unit 212. Based on the correspondence between the person and the disclosure level, the disclosure level of the other party to communicate with is specified, and the stored information consisting of experience information and private input information stored in the data storage unit 206 is specified. The stored information conforming to the published level is transmitted to the partner apparatus.

  Also in the specific example, a partner recognition processing unit corresponding to the partner recognition processing unit 217 is connected to the system 1 in FIG. 1, but the illustration thereof is omitted.

[Information Exchange Processing Operation in Second Embodiment]
Information exchange processing in the information acquisition / storage management device of the second exemplary embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 19 and 20.

  In this example, when two users who possess the information acquisition / storage management device of the second embodiment having the above-described configuration approach each other, when one user performs an information exchange request input operation, the information The acquisition / storage management device enters a state of wireless connection with the second information acquisition / storage management device using the wireless communication unit 55, and executes the processing shown in the flowchart of FIG.

  That is, first, the CPU 11 confirms the wireless connection with the counterpart device (step S71). After confirming the wireless connection, the CPU 11 sends an information exchange request to the counterpart device (step S72).

  Then, the CPU 11 activates the image capturing unit 22 to capture captured image data, captures audio data from the microphone 23, recognizes the recognition results of the image recognition unit 41 and the speech recognition unit 43, and a database constituting the data storage unit 206. By comparing and referring to the personal data stored in the unit 52, the partner recognition processing unit recognizes the user (partner) of the partner device (step S73).

  And CPU11 discriminate | determines whether the other party was able to be specified as a recognition result in the other party recognition process part (step S74), and when it determines with the other party having been recognized, it is stored in the database part 52 which comprises the data storage part 206. The public level set for the recognized partner is extracted, and the device ID of the partner device is detected (step S75).

  Next, the CPU 11 searches the public level setting unit 53 based on the detected device ID of the counterpart device, and extracts the communication history information stored corresponding to the device ID of the counterpart device (step). S76).

  Then, using the disclosure level detected in step S75 and the communication history information extracted in step S76, information to be sent to the counterpart device is searched from the database unit 52 (step S77). That is, the database unit 52 is searched using the disclosure level detected in step S75 as a search condition, and accumulated information including experience information and private input information matching the disclosure level is extracted from the database unit 52. Furthermore, using the communication history information acquired in step S76, information is extracted from the database unit 52, for example, limited to those after the last communication with the counterpart device.

  Next, the CPU 11 transmits the accumulated information including the extracted experience information and private input information to the counterpart device as described above (step S78).

  Next, stored information consisting of experience information and private input information extracted and sent in the information exchange process performed in the counterpart device is received (step S79). The information transmitted in step S78 is own experience information and private input information, and the information received in step S79 is other person's experience information and private input information.

  Next, the CPU 11 calculates the similarity between the information transmitted in step S78 and the information received in step S79 by the similarity calculation notifying unit 57 (step S80). As described above, if the experience information and the private input information include words or sentences, the similarity is calculated using the number of matching words as the similarity. In the case of having a synonym table, the number of similar words is calculated as the similarity. If the experience information and the private input information include numerical values, the similarity is calculated using the difference value between them.

  Next, the CPU 11 presents, to the user, information having a high degree of similarity among the stored information composed of the experience information and private input information transmitted to the counterpart device (step S81). Here, in step S81, all of the received experience information and private input information from the partner device can be presented together, but experience information with low similarity from the partner device or private information that is not common at all. It is desirable not to disclose personal information of the communication partner more than necessary by not presenting the input information.

  In step S81, the experience information and private input information transmitted to the counterpart device and their similarity may be presented. In addition, it is possible to present information included in the communication history information acquired in step S76.

  If it is determined in step S74 that the partner person has not been identified, the public level for the partner device is recognized as “all members” (step S82), and the stored information that matches the public level is stored in the database unit 52. And information to be transmitted to the partner apparatus is extracted (step S83).

  Then, the process proceeds to step S78, where the extracted information is sent to the partner apparatus, and the processing from step S79 onward is performed.

  Next, the processing operation on the device side that has received the information exchange request will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, the CPU 11 confirms a wireless connection with an information acquisition / storage management device (hereinafter referred to as an information exchange request device) that has requested information exchange (step S91). When the wireless connection is confirmed, the CPU 11 receives an information exchange request from the information exchange requesting device (step S92). Next, in the own apparatus, the CPU 11 activates the imaging unit 22 to capture the captured image data, captures the audio data from the microphone 23, recognizes the recognition results of the image recognition unit 41 and the speech recognition unit 43, and the data storage unit. The partner recognition processing unit recognizes the user (partner) of the partner device by comparing and referring to the personal data stored in the database unit 52 constituting 206 (step S93).

  And CPU11 discriminate | determines whether the other party was able to be specified as a recognition result in the other party recognition process part (step S74), and when it determines with the other party having been recognized, it is stored in the database part 52 which comprises the data storage part 206. The public level set for the recognized partner is extracted, and the device ID of the partner device is detected (step S95).

  Then, the CPU 11 searches the public level setting unit 53 based on the detected device ID of the partner device, and extracts the communication history information of the information exchange requesting device (step S96).

  Then, using the disclosure level detected in step S95 and the communication history information extracted in step S96, information to be sent to the information exchange requesting device is searched from the database unit 52 (step S97). That is, the database unit 52 is searched using the disclosure level detected in step S95 as a search condition, and accumulated information including experience information and private input information matching the disclosure level is extracted from the database unit 52. Further, using the communication history information acquired in step S96, information is extracted from the database unit 52, for example, only after the last communication with the information exchange requesting device.

  Next, the CPU 11 transmits the accumulated information including the extracted experience information and private input information to the information exchange requesting device as described above (step S98). Next, storage information consisting of experience information and private input information extracted and sent in the information exchange processing performed in the information exchange requesting device is received (step S99).

  Next, the CPU 11 calculates the similarity between the information transmitted in step S98 and the information received in step S99 by the similarity calculation notifying unit 57 as described above (step S100).

  Next, the CPU 11 presents, to the user, information having a high degree of similarity among the accumulated information including the experience information and private input information transmitted to the information request exchange device (step S101). Here, in step S101, all of the received experience information and private input information from the information exchange requesting device can be presented together. However, experience information with low similarity from the information exchange requesting device or It is desirable not to disclose personal information of the communication partner more than necessary by not presenting non-common private input information.

  Further, in step S101, experience information and private input information transmitted to the information exchange requesting device and their similarity may be presented. In addition, it is possible to present information included in the communication history information acquired in step S96.

  If it is determined in step S94 that the partner person has not been specified, the public level for the partner device is recognized as “all members” (step S102), and the stored information that matches the public level is stored in the database unit 52. And information to be transmitted to the partner apparatus is extracted (step S103).

  Then, the process proceeds to step S98, where the extracted information is sent to the partner apparatus, and further, the processes after step S99 described above are performed.

[Information Retrieval Processing Operation in Second Embodiment (for Counterpart Device)]
With reference to the flowcharts of FIG. 21 and FIG. 22, the search request process of other user experience information and private input information and the reception process of the counterpart apparatus corresponding thereto in the information acquisition / use management apparatus of the second embodiment will be described. To do.

  In this example, when two users possessing the information acquisition / storage management device of the second embodiment having the above-described configuration approach each other, one user performs an input operation of an information search request to another device. Then, the information acquisition / storage management device is wirelessly connected to the other information acquisition / storage management device using the wireless communication unit 55, and enters a state of transmitting a search request to the other device. The search request process shown in the flowchart is executed, and another apparatus (hereinafter referred to as a partner apparatus) that has received the search request executes the process shown in the flowchart of FIG.

  Each step S111 to 118 in FIG. 21 corresponds to each step S51 to 58 in FIG. 16 described above, and in step S112, an information search request is sent to the partner device without sending its own device ID. Except for, the process is exactly the same as the process of FIG.

  Then, the counterpart device that receives the search request performs the processing as shown in FIG. 22, which is different from FIG. 17 and will be described below.

  First, the CPU 11 confirms a wireless connection with an information acquisition / storage management apparatus (hereinafter referred to as an information search request apparatus) that has requested information search (step S121). When the wireless connection is confirmed, the CPU 11 receives an information search request from the information search requesting device (step S122).

  Next, the CPU 11 activates the image capturing unit 22 to capture captured image data, captures audio data from the microphone 23, and configures the recognition results of the image recognition unit 41 and the speech recognition unit 43 and the data storage unit 206. By comparing and referring to the personal data stored in the database unit 52, the partner recognition processing unit recognizes the user (partner) of the partner device (step S123).

  Then, the CPU 11 determines whether or not the partner has been identified as a recognition result in the partner recognition processing unit (step S124). When it is determined that the partner has been recognized, the CPU 11 stores it in the database unit 52 constituting the data storage unit 206. The public level set for the recognized partner is extracted (step S125). On the other hand, when it is determined in step S124 that the partner has not been recognized, the public level for the partner is recognized as “all” (step S129).

  Then, after step S125 or step S129, the CPU 11 proceeds to step S126, waits for and receives the search condition from the device that has requested the search, and extracts information that matches the received search condition from the database unit 52. At the same time, information that matches the disclosure level detected in step S125 or step S129 is extracted from the extracted information and is sent to the information search requesting device (step S127). In step S127, the extracted transmission information is sent to the information search requesting device (step S128). Thus, the process of FIG. 22 ends.

[Other variations]
In the above-described embodiment, the information acquisition / use management device constantly monitors the wireless connection with other information acquisition / use management devices, and when it is within a predetermined distance range, the information acquisition / use management device is configured to be able to communicate by wireless connection. In this state, the user inputs an information search request or inputs an information exchange request. However, as a method of communication connection between information acquisition and use management devices, It is not limited.

  The first example of another communication connection corresponds to the device ID of another information acquisition / use management device, the URL (UNIFORM RESOURCE LOCATOR) of the other information acquisition / use management device, telephone number, mobile phone number, etc. Is stored, and a communication connection request is sent to a specific partner apparatus selected by the user using the stored URL, telephone number, or the like.

  In the case of the first example, the communication connection request receiving side becomes communicable by forming a communication path when the user responds in response to the incoming communication connection request. 14 and the processes shown in FIGS. 16 and 17 can be performed. This first example is applicable only in the case of the first embodiment.

  In the second example of other communication connections, the information acquisition and use management device includes the wireless communication unit 55 as in the above-described embodiment. However, the user does not always search for wireless connection, When performing an operation input for an information search request or an operation input for an information exchange request, wirelessly broadcast to all other information acquisition / use management devices existing in the vicinity of the information acquisition / use management device First, a communication connection request is transmitted, and wireless connection is established with another information acquisition / use management device that has responded, and FIG. 13, FIG. 14 and FIG. 16, FIG. 17, or FIG. 19, FIG. 20, FIG. It is possible to perform processing as shown in FIG.

  In a third example of another communication connection, the user inputs information to each information acquisition / use management device through the operation input unit when information can be provided. Then, the information acquisition / use management apparatus that has received the operation input meaning that the information can be provided can provide information to the other information acquisition / use management apparatus at a constant period or always from the wireless communication unit 55. This information is transmitted wirelessly.

  Then, among other information acquisition and use management devices, a device that has been set in advance when an information search request is operated by a user who has received this information or when an information exchange request is made indicates that the information can be provided. The process shown in FIG. 13, FIG. 14 and FIG. 16, FIG. 17, or FIG. 19, FIG. 20, FIG. 21, and FIG. To do.

  Note that in the third example, the user does not perform an information search request operation in advance by the user, or the device set when the information exchange request is made does not wirelessly connect, but at that time, the user inputs the information search request operation input. Or when an information exchange request operation input is performed, a device that wirelessly transmits information indicating that information can be provided is searched. The above-described processing shown in FIGS. 13, 14, 16, 17, or 19, 19, 20, 21, 21, and 22 may be performed.

  In all the embodiments described above, the disclosure level for the stored information is set and input as one piece of private input information, but is not input as one piece of private input information. In addition, setting information may be input for each piece of information such as voice information. In that case, even if the image information is disclosed, it is possible not to disclose audio information such as the content of the story at that time.

  It is also possible to add a disclosure level so as to permit disclosure to an external device existing in a specific distance range. Furthermore, it is also possible to permit the publication by limiting the specific date and time and the day of the week depending on the publication level. It is also possible to set a new disclosure level by combining a plurality of disclosure levels.

  Further, in the above-described embodiment, the public level information is set as one of the private input information. However, the public level is information different from the private input information for the entire stored information. You may make it set as. Further, the disclosure level may be set for each of the captured image information and audio information of the experience information, instead of being set for the accumulated information. Moreover, you may make it set with respect to each of private input information.

  In the above-described embodiment, the disclosure level is set using information representing human relationships (human relationship information). However, the disclosure level is set based on the distance range from the position where the user exists. It may be.

  In such a case, the distance information indicating the distance range to be disclosed to the counterpart device or the counterpart user corresponding to each of the accumulation IDs of the accumulation information consisting of the experience information of the data accumulation unit and the private input information is disclosed level. Set as. For example, “10” is used for the storage information that allows the other device or user in the distance range of 10 meters to be disclosed, and “10” is used for the storage information that is permitted to be released to the other device or user in the distance range of 100 meters. “100” is set, and so on, a disclosure level consisting of a distance range is set.

  Then, the information acquisition / use management device sends information indicating the current position to the partner device in the search request and exchange request. Then, the partner device detects the distance between the current position of the device that has received the request and its own device, and refers to the disclosure level added to the stored information based on the distance to the disclosure level. Try to extract relevant information.

  In this case, there is no need for a public level setting unit for setting a correspondence relationship between the device ID and partner identification information and the public level.

  Further, the disclosure level may be set using a period, a specific date, or the like. For example, in the storage information, the disclosure level is set by a word indicating a period such as one day, one week, one month, one year, etc., corresponding to the storage ID. Then, the counterpart device detects the date and time when the request is made, and extracts information that matches the disclosure level with reference to the disclosure level added to the accumulated information based on the date and time.

  Also in this example, a public level setting unit for setting a correspondence relationship between the device ID and partner identification information and the public level is not necessary.

It is a block diagram which shows embodiment of the information acquisition utilization management apparatus by this invention. It is a functional block diagram for demonstrating the information acquisition accumulation | storage function part in embodiment of the information acquisition utilization management apparatus by this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the data storage part in embodiment. It is a figure for demonstrating the publication level setting part in embodiment. It is a functional block diagram for demonstrating the information utilization function part in embodiment of the information acquisition utilization management apparatus by this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the communication log information in embodiment. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the information acquisition accumulation | storage process operation | movement in embodiment. It is a figure for demonstrating an example of the experience information in embodiment. It is a figure for demonstrating an example of the private input information in embodiment. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the information search process operation | movement in embodiment. It is a figure for explanation of information search processing operation of an embodiment. It is a figure for explanation of information search processing operation of an embodiment. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the information exchange request | requirement process operation | movement in embodiment. It is a flow chart for explaining information exchange request reception processing operation in an embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the information exchange process result in embodiment. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the information search request | requirement process operation | movement of embodiment. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the information search request reception processing operation | movement of embodiment. It is a functional block diagram for demonstrating the information utilization function part in other embodiment. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the information exchange request | requirement process operation | movement in other embodiment. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the information exchange request | requirement process operation | movement in other embodiment. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the information search request | requirement process operation of other embodiment. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the information retrieval request | requirement reception processing operation | movement of other embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Control part, 21 ... GPS receiving part, 22 ... Imaging part, 23 ... Microphone, 31 ... Evaluation input key, 32 ... Operation input part, 41 ... Image recognition part, 42 ... Text recognition part, 43 ... Voice recognition part, DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 51 ... Data definition process part, 52 ... Database part (data storage part), 52 ... Public level setting part, 54 ... Communication interface, 55 ... Wireless communication part, 57 ... Similarity calculation notification part

Claims (20)

Information acquisition means for acquiring experience information related to the event experienced by the user;
A data storage unit that stores at least the experience information acquired by the information acquisition unit and a disclosure level for determining a range of disclosure of the experience information corresponding to the experience information;
A communication means for communicating with the counterpart device;
Means for detecting the disclosure level of the counterpart user or counterpart device that has sent the acquisition request when the acquisition request of the experience information stored in the data storage unit is received through the communication means;
The experience information that matches the detected disclosure level of the counterpart device is extracted from the data storage unit by referring to the disclosure level corresponding to the experience information, and the acquisition request is made through the communication means. Means for sending to the counterpart device;
An information acquisition and use management device comprising: Information acquisition means for acquiring experience information related to the event experienced by the user;
A data storage unit that stores at least the experience information acquired by the information acquisition unit and a disclosure level for determining a range of disclosure of the experience information corresponding to the experience information;
A communication means for communicating with the counterpart device;
Means for detecting the disclosure level of the counterpart user or counterpart device that has sent the exchange request when the exchange request of the experience information stored in the data storage unit is received through the communication means;
The experience information matching the detected disclosure level of the counterpart device is extracted from the data storage unit by referring to the disclosure level corresponding to the experience information, and the exchange request is made through the communication means. Means for sending to the counterpart device;
Means for receiving the experience information sent from the counterpart device;
A similarity calculation notifying means for calculating a similarity between the received experience information and the experience information sent to the counterpart device, and notifying a user of the calculated similarity;
An information acquisition / use management apparatus comprising: In the information acquisition and use management device according to claim 1 or 2,
A disclosure level setting means for setting and storing the correspondence between the disclosure level and the identification information of the partner user or the partner device that requests acquisition of the experience information based on the setting input of the user;
Identification of the counterpart user or the counterpart device that has sent the acquisition request set in the disclosure level setting means when the experience information acquisition request stored in the data storage unit is received through the communication means Means for recognizing information and detecting the disclosure level set corresponding to the recognized identification information of the counterpart user or the counterpart device;
Means for extracting the experience information suitable for the detected disclosure level from the data storage unit and sending it to the counterpart device that has made the acquisition request through the communication means;
An information acquisition and use management device comprising: In the information acquisition and use management device according to claim 3,
The disclosure level is set by using human relation information. In the information acquisition and use management device according to claim 1 or 2,
Use information about time as the disclosure level,
When the acquisition request of the experience information stored in the data storage unit is received through the communication means, the experience corresponding to the disclosure level that can be sent to the counterpart device based on the time of reception. An information acquisition / use management apparatus, wherein information is extracted from the data storage unit. In the information acquisition and use management device according to claim 1 or 2,
The information regarding the distance between the device itself and the partner device is used as the disclosure level,
When the acquisition request of the experience information stored in the data storage unit is received through the communication unit, the disclosure level that can be sent to the partner device based on the location information of the partner included in the reception is The corresponding experience information is extracted from the data storage unit. An information acquisition means for acquiring experience information related to an event experienced by a user, including an imaging means and an acquisition means for audio information;
At least a data storage unit that stores the experience information acquired by the information acquisition means and a disclosure level for determining a range for disclosing the experience information;
A public level setting unit for storing correspondence between information used for specifying a partner, such as image information and voice information of the partner user, and the public level set and input according to each partner user;
Using the image information obtained by photographing the other user by the imaging means, the sound information obtained from the other user by the sound information obtaining means, and the information stored in the other information storage unit, Partner recognition means for recognizing the partner user;
Communication means for communicating with the device of the counterpart user;
When the experience information acquisition request stored in the data storage unit is received through the communication unit, the experience information acquisition request is sent from the disclosure level setting unit according to the recognition result in the partner recognition unit. Means for detecting the public level corresponding to the other user who sent it,
Means for extracting the experience information that matches the detected disclosure level from the data storage unit and sending it to the counterpart device that has made the acquisition request through the communication means;
An information acquisition and use management device comprising: An information acquisition means for acquiring experience information related to an event experienced by a user, including an imaging means and an acquisition means for audio information;
At least a data storage unit that stores the experience information acquired by the information acquisition means and a disclosure level for determining a range for disclosing the experience information;
A public level setting unit for storing correspondence between information used for specifying a partner, such as image information and voice information of the partner user, and the public level set and input according to each partner user;
Using the image information obtained by photographing the other user by the imaging means, the sound information obtained from the other user by the sound information obtaining means, and the information stored in the other information storage unit, Partner recognition means for recognizing the partner user;
Communication means for communicating with the device of the counterpart user;
When the exchange request for the experience information stored in the data storage unit is received through the communication unit, the exchange request for the experience information is received from the disclosure level setting unit according to the recognition result in the partner recognition unit. Means for detecting the public level corresponding to the other user who sent it,
Means for extracting, from the data storage unit, the experience information that matches the detected disclosure level, and sending it to the partner apparatus that has requested the exchange through the communication means;
Means for receiving the experience information sent from the counterpart device;
A similarity calculation notifying means for calculating a similarity between the received experience information and the experience information sent to the counterpart device, and notifying a user of the calculated similarity;
An information acquisition and use management device comprising: In the information acquisition and use management device according to claim 7 or claim 8,
Means for storing private input information related to the experience information input by a user in the data storage unit in association with the experience information;
The disclosure level of the experience information is set and inputted as one of the private input information, and the private input information is sent to the counterpart device together with the experience information. apparatus. In the information acquisition use management device according to claim 9,
The experience information adds identification information in a group of units and accumulates the data in the data storage unit, and the private input information including the disclosure level is based on the experience information in the group of units. An information acquisition / use management apparatus characterized by being input in association with the identification information. In the information acquisition and use management device according to claim 7 or claim 8,
Means for holding at least the last communication history in the past with the counterpart device;
The information to be transmitted to the counterpart device is information acquired after the last communication with reference to the last communication history. In the information acquisition and use management device according to claim 7 or claim 8,
Means for holding at least the last communication history in the past with the counterpart device;
The similarity calculation notification means is configured to preferentially notify the similarity of experience information acquired after the last communication. In the information acquisition / use management device according to any one of claims 1, 2, 7, and 8,
The information acquisition means includes an image recognition means and an image recognition means for recognizing a preset feature image from image data from the imaging information.
An information acquisition / use management apparatus, wherein the recognition result of the image recognition means is stored in the data storage unit as one of the experience information. In the information acquisition / use management device according to any one of claims 1, 2, 7, and 8,
The information acquisition means includes voice data acquisition means and voice recognition means for recognizing a pronunciation of a preset characteristic word from voice data from the voice data acquisition means,
The information acquisition / use management apparatus, wherein the recognition result of the voice recognition means is stored in the data storage unit as one of the experience information. In the information acquisition / use management device according to any one of claims 1, 2, 7, and 8,
The information acquisition means includes imaging means and the sentence recognition means for recognizing a preset characteristic word from image data from the imaging information,
An information acquisition / use management apparatus, wherein the recognition result of the sentence recognition means is stored in the data storage unit as one of the experience information. In the information acquisition and use management device according to claim 7 or claim 8,
The disclosure level is set by using human relation information. An information acquisition step of acquiring experience information related to the event experienced by the user;
A data storage step of storing in the data storage unit at least the experience information acquired in the information acquisition step and a disclosure level for determining a range of disclosure of the experience information corresponding to the experience information;
Detecting the disclosure level of the counterpart user or the counterpart device that has sent the acquisition request when receiving the acquisition request of the experience information stored in the data storage unit through communication means;
The experience information that matches the detected disclosure level of the counterpart device is extracted from the data storage unit by referring to the disclosure level corresponding to the experience information, and the acquisition request is made through the communication means. Sending to the counterpart device;
An information acquisition and use management method comprising: An information acquisition step of acquiring experience information related to the event experienced by the user;
A data storage step of storing in the data storage unit at least the experience information acquired in the information acquisition step and a disclosure level for determining a range of disclosure of the experience information corresponding to the experience information;
Detecting the disclosure level of the counterpart user or the counterpart device that has sent the exchange request when the exchange request of the experience information stored in the data storage unit is received through communication means;
The experience information that matches the detected disclosure level of the counterpart device is extracted from the data storage unit by referring to the disclosure level corresponding to the experience information, and the acquisition request is made through the communication means. Sending to the counterpart device;
Receiving the experience information sent from the counterpart device;
Calculating a similarity between the received experience information and the experience information sent to the counterpart device and notifying the user of the calculated similarity;
An information acquisition / use management method comprising: An information acquisition step of acquiring experience information related to an event experienced by the user as data from an imaging means or voice information acquisition means;
A data storage step of storing in the data storage unit at least the experience information acquired in the information acquisition step and a disclosure level for determining a range for disclosing the experience information;
Storing the information used for specifying the other party such as image information and voice information of the other user in association with the public level set and inputted in accordance with each other user in the public level setting unit;
Using the image information obtained by photographing the other user by the imaging means, the sound information obtained from the other user by the sound information obtaining means, and the information stored in the other information storage unit, A partner recognition step for recognizing the partner user;
When the acquisition request of the experience information stored in the data storage unit is received through the communication means, the acquisition request of the experience information is sent from the disclosure level setting unit according to the recognition result in the partner recognition step. Detecting the public level corresponding to the other user
Extracting the experience information that matches the detected disclosure level from the data storage unit and sending it to the counterpart device that has requested the acquisition through the communication means;
An information acquisition and use management method comprising: An information acquisition step of acquiring experience information related to an event experienced by the user as data from an imaging means or voice information acquisition means;
A data storage step of storing in the data storage unit at least the experience information acquired in the information acquisition step and a disclosure level for determining a range for disclosing the experience information;
Storing the information used for specifying the other party such as image information and voice information of the other user in association with the public level set and inputted in accordance with each other user in the public level setting unit;
Using the image information obtained by photographing the other user by the imaging means, the sound information obtained from the other user by the sound information obtaining means, and the information stored in the other information storage unit, A partner recognition step for recognizing the partner user;
When the acquisition request of the experience information stored in the data storage unit is received through the communication means, the acquisition request of the experience information is sent from the disclosure level setting unit according to the recognition result in the partner recognition step. Detecting the public level corresponding to the other user
Extracting the experience information that matches the detected disclosure level from the data storage unit and sending it to the counterpart device that has requested the acquisition through the communication means;
Receiving the experience information sent from the counterpart device;
Calculating a similarity between the received experience information and the experience information sent to the counterpart device and notifying the user of the calculated similarity;
An information acquisition and use management method comprising:

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