JP2008026949A - Tabulation system, reply device and tabulation machine - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a tabulation system, a reply device and a tabulation device for grasping the overall trends of selection results while concealing each selection result. <P>SOLUTION: This tabulation system is provided with: a plurality of reply devices 1 for generating numerical values based on selection information showing selective selection results for prescribed items and a tabulation device 2 for tabulating selection results based on the numerical values. The reply device 1 generates numerical values by using probability distribution whose expected values are different according to the selection information, and transmits the numerical values to the tabulation device 2. The tabulation device 2 receives the numerical values from the plurality of reply devices 1, and totals the numerical values. Then, it is possible to calculate the approximate value of the number of the reply device 1 of each selection result from the total value and the probability distribution and the total number of the replay device 1. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a tabulation system that tabulates selection results for predetermined items. The present invention also relates to an answering device that notifies a selection result and a counting device that counts the notified selection result.

When performing simultaneous distribution services such as IP (Internet Protocol) broadcasting, distribution using IP multicast (see, for example, Patent Document 1) is common. This distribution is performed by the receiver without being aware of which receiver the sender is distributing. That is, unlike a service form such as VoD (Video on Demand) in which a sender and a receiver establish communication on a one-to-one basis and perform distribution, the receiver only requests distribution from a neighboring router. Cannot know the number of content distributions directly.
JP 2005-252670 A

  When IP broadcasting is realized, the audience rating of the program will be an important business factor, as is the case with current terrestrial television broadcasting. Therefore, it is desired to realize a system capable of collecting information on the number of recipients of multicast content to be used for measuring the audience rating in IP broadcasting. However, if the delivery content to each receiver is explicitly notified from the receiver side to the sender side, there is a problem in the confidentiality of the communication related to the notification. Therefore, when totaling the selection results of distribution contents, it is necessary to conceal the selection results of individual recipients.

  In addition, as in the case of, for example, a popularity survey of distribution contents, it may be sufficient for the aggregation side to grasp the tendency of the overall selection results without knowing the selection results of individual recipients.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and provides an aggregation system, an answering device, and an aggregation device capable of grasping an overall tendency of selection results while concealing individual selection results. The purpose is to do.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem, and a plurality of answering devices that generate numerical values based on selection information indicating alternative selection results, and the selection results are totaled based on the numerical values. A counting system including a counting device, wherein the answering device generates the numerical value using probability distributions having different expected values according to the selection information, and the generated numerical value is the counting device. A totaling system comprising: a receiving unit configured to receive the numerical values from a plurality of the answering devices; and a summing unit configured to sum the received numerical values. It is.

Selection information is information which shows the answer result (Yes or No selection result) with respect to the question which can select either Yes / No, for example. Corresponding to such selection information, probability distributions having different expected values are prepared for each selection result. For example, which is a probability distribution provides the expected value E ₁ in response to the selection result in Yes, the probability distribution of expected values E ₂ in response to the selection result is prepared as No. The generation means selects a probability distribution according to the content of the selection information, and generates a numerical value.

The total value calculated by the summing unit corresponds to the total value of the numerical values generated corresponding to the selection result of Yes (referred to as the first total value) and the selection result of No in the case of the above conditions. The total value of the numerical values generated in this way (the second total value) is the total value. That is, the number of respondents device that generated the number by the selection Yes result as N _1, when the number of respondents device that generated the number by the selection result of No and N _2, the sum total unit was calculated Is expected to be N ₁ × E ₁ + N ₂ × E ₂ . If the probability distribution (E ₁ and E ₂ ) and the total number of answering devices (N ₁ + N ₂ ) are known, approximate values of N ₁ and N ₂ can be obtained based on the total value calculated by the summing means. Therefore, it is possible to grasp the overall tendency of the selection results while hiding the individual selection results.

  In the aggregation system of the present invention, when there are a plurality of the selection information and the contents of some of the selection information can be determined from the contents of the other selection information, the transmission means The numerical value generated for each of the selection information other than the selection information of the unit is transmitted to the aggregation device, and the summing unit adds the received numerical values and then relates to all the selection information The total value of the numerical values related to a part of the selection information is calculated by subtracting the received total value of the numerical values from the expected value of the total value of the numerical values.

  The plurality of selection information means that there are a plurality of questions that can select either Yes / No, for example, and that there is selection information for each selection result for each question. If a plurality of questions are question 1, question 2,..., Question n (n ≧ 2), for example, there is only one question whose selection result is Yes, and selection results for all the remaining questions are When it is guaranteed that the answer is No, it is possible to determine the selection result for question n from the selection results for questions 1 to n-1.

In such a case, the generation means generates a numerical value for each question for questions 1 to n-1, but does not generate a numerical value for question n (or even if a numerical value is generated for question n, it is sent to the counting device. Do not send). Therefore, the numerical values transmitted from the answering device to the counting device are only the numerical values related to question n to question n-1. The summing unit sums only the numerical values related to the questions 1 to n-1 over all the questions and all the answering devices. On the other hand, if only one of the selection results of questions 1 to n is Yes and all the other selection results are No, Question 1 for all answering devices (the number is N). ~ The sum of the numerical values related to Question n is expected to be {E ₁ + (n-1) × E ₂ } × N.

  A value obtained by subtracting the total value calculated by the summing means from this total value (expected value) is expected to be the total value of the numerical values related to the question n for all answering devices. Thereby, it is possible to grasp the overall tendency of the selection result not only for each question of question 1 to question n-1, but also for question n from the answer results of question 1 to question n-1. In addition, since the numerical value related to the question n is not transmitted, the communication amount can be suppressed.

  Further, in the tabulation system of the present invention, when the selection information is plural, and the content of some of the selection information can be determined from the content of the other selection information, the tabulation device further includes: And a correction unit configured to correct the total value of the numerical values totaled for each of the selection information based on a total value of the numerical values related to all the selection information and an expected value of the total value.

In the case of the same condition as described above, the sum of the numerical values related to all questions (the numerical values related to questions 1,..., I,..., N are summed across all questions and all answering devices. It is desirable that S) match the expected value (E) of the total value theoretically calculated based on the probability distribution, but there is actually an error. The correction means calculates a correction value S _i ′ of the total value S _i of the numerical values related to an arbitrary question i, for example, as S _i ′ = S _i × E / S. Thereby, the accuracy of the counting result can be improved.

  In addition, the present invention provides a generation unit that generates a numerical value using probability distributions having different expected values according to selection information indicating an alternative selection result, and the generated numerical value is selected based on the numerical value. It is an answering device characterized by comprising transmission means for transmitting to a counting device for counting.

  In the answering device of the present invention, when there are a plurality of selection information and the contents of some of the selection information can be determined from the contents of the other selection information, the transmission means The numerical value generated for each of the selection information other than the selection information of a section is transmitted to the counting device.

  The present invention also includes a receiving means for receiving the numerical value from a plurality of answering devices that generate numerical values using probability distributions having different expected values according to selection information indicating alternative selection results, and the received And a summing unit for summing up numerical values.

  In addition, in the aggregation device of the present invention, when the selection information is plural and it is possible to determine the contents of some of the selection information from the contents of the other selection information, Receiving the numerical value generated for each of the selection information other than the selection information of the unit from the answering device, and the summing unit sums up the received numerical values and relates to all the selection information The total value of the numerical values related to a part of the selection information is calculated by subtracting the received total value of the numerical values from the expected value of the total value of the numerical values.

  Further, in the aggregation device of the present invention, when there are a plurality of the selection information and the contents of some of the selection information can be determined from the contents of the other selection information, all of the selection information The image processing apparatus further includes correction means for correcting the total value of the numerical values totaled for each of the selection information based on the total value of the numerical values and the expected value of the total value.

  The specific example is used in the above description to make the idea of the present invention clearer by making the abstracted invention correspond to the specific example, and this description limits the content of the present invention. It is not done.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to obtain an effect that the overall tendency of the selection result can be grasped while concealing each selection result.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the embodiment of the present invention, it is assumed that the selection result of the content by the recipient is investigated. This total of selection results is generally considered equivalent to a questionnaire survey conducted on a large number of unspecified subjects. That is, each question can be associated with each content, and whether or not each content is distributed can be associated with an answer.

  The question prepared in the embodiment of the present invention is a question in an alternative format that can be answered with Yes / No, and asks whether content is distributed (viewed or not). In addition, when there are three or more types of answers to the original question (example of question: which content has been distributed among the contents 1 to 12), a plurality of questions that can answer the original question with Yes / No (Whether the content 1 has been delivered (Yes / No), the content 2 has been delivered (Yes / No),...).

  FIG. 4 shows the structure of answer information (corresponding to the selection information of the present invention) indicating the answer result to the question. The question asks the content received at a specific time. In general, only answer information groups with the same additional information such as time information are counted. As described above, the original question is converted into a question in a format that asks whether content is distributed or not. The answer information group 400 includes a plurality of answer information 401-1 to 401-12. The response information 401-1 indicates whether or not the content 1 is distributed, and the response information 401-2 indicates whether or not the content 2 is distributed. The same applies to other answer information.

  Answers to questions are tabulated as follows. Hereinafter, a computer device that generates replies is referred to as an answering device, and a computer device that compiles responses is referred to as a counting device. Random variables X and Y defined on the space S = {− C / 2, −C / 2 + 1, −C / 2 + 2,..., C / 2} are prepared. The value of C takes a sufficiently large value according to the number of survey targets (number of answering devices) and the accuracy required for the total value (for example, C = 1000 when the number of answering devices is 1 million). Shall.

  When the answer is Yes, the answering device notifies the counting device of the value of X selected according to the probability distribution ρ (FIG. 5A) of the random variable X with the expected value E (X) being 1. Further, when the answer is No, the answering device notifies the counting device of the value of Y selected according to the probability distribution η (FIG. 5B) of the random variable Y whose expected value E (Y) is 0. . As a result, the contents notified by the answering devices to the counting device are concealed (to the extent corresponding to C).

Upon receiving the notification, the counting device adds the value notified from each answering device for each question. If i is the number of an arbitrary answering device, z _{i is} the value that the answering device i notifies the counting device for one question, and z is the value that the counting device can obtain in one notification, the probability variable Z is Thus, the total value of z _i of all answering devices is as follows. That is, the total value can be expected to match the number of answering devices that have selected the answer of Yes.
Σz _i ≒ ΣE (Z)
= {Number of answering devices that selected Yes} × E (X) + {number of answering devices that selected No} × E (Y)
= {Number of answering devices that selected Yes}

  Next, the configuration of the counting system according to the present embodiment will be described. FIG. 1 shows the configuration of the totalization system. This totaling system includes a plurality of answering devices 1 and one totaling device 2. Each answering device 1 and the totaling device 2 are connected so as to be able to communicate via a communication network (not shown). There may be a plurality of totaling devices 2, but in that case, any one of the totaling devices 2 is a device that performs final counting.

  FIG. 2 shows a main configuration of the answering device 1. The storage unit 101 stores information such as a probability distribution. The answer generation unit 102 (generation means) generates answer information indicating the content of the answer to the question. The communication unit 103 (transmission means) communicates with the aggregation device 2 and transmits the response information to the aggregation device 2. The display unit 104 displays various information. The operation unit 105 generates a signal based on the respondent's operation. The control unit 106 controls the operation of each unit in the answering device 1.

  Answers to questions are made as follows. First, the question information indicating the content of the question is received by the communication unit 103 by, for example, multicasting from the totaling device 2 and output to the answer generation unit 102 via the control unit 106. The answer generation unit 102 determines to generate answer information based on the question information, and performs the following operation.

  For example, when the display unit 104 displays the question content based on the question information and the respondent operates the operation unit 105, a signal based on the operation result is input to the answer generation unit 102 via the control unit 106. The answer generation unit 102 identifies a Yes / No answer result for each question based on the signal. Alternatively, after the question information is received, the viewing history of past contents is read from the storage unit 101 by the control unit 106 and output to the answer generation unit 102. The answer generation unit 102 identifies a Yes / No answer result for each question based on the content viewing history.

  Subsequently, the probability distribution information is read from the storage unit 101 by the control unit 106 and output to the answer generation unit 102. As described above, the probability distribution is different for each answer of Yes / No. When the answer is Yes, the probability distribution with the expected value E (X) being 1 is used, and when the answer is No. A probability distribution in which the expected value E (X) is 0 is used. For each question, the answer generation unit 102 generates a numerical value according to the probability distribution corresponding to the answer content, and generates answer information including the numerical value as the answer content corresponding to each question. The reply information generated as described above is output to the communication unit 103 via the control unit 106 and transmitted to the counting device 2 by the communication unit 103.

  FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the counting device 2. The storage unit 201 stores various types of information. The answer counting unit 202 (counting unit) counts the answers based on the answer information. The communication unit 203 (reception unit) communicates with the answering device 1 and receives answer information from the counting device 2. The display unit 204 displays various information. The operation unit 205 generates a signal based on the operation of the totalizer. The control unit 206 controls the operation of each unit in the counting device 2.

  Responses are aggregated as follows. First, the response information transmitted by the totalization device 2 is received by the communication unit 203 and output to the response totalization unit 202 via the control unit 206. The answer totaling unit 202 identifies numerical values included in the answer information for each question. Then, the answer totaling unit 202 totals the numerical values obtained from the plurality of totaling devices 2 for each question. Further, the answer counting unit 202 calculates a Yes / No ratio or the like based on the obtained total value as necessary.

  The tabulation results thus obtained are stored in the storage unit 201 via the control unit 206. The totaling result is appropriately read from the storage unit 201 by the control unit 206 and used. For example, the total result is displayed on the display unit 204.

  Since the numerical values obtained from the individual answering apparatuses 1 as described above are determined according to a predetermined probability distribution corresponding to the answer contents, the answer contents cannot be sufficiently estimated from only the numerical values. However, the total value of the numerical values obtained from a sufficient number of answering devices 1 is a value based on the probability distribution, and the approximate distribution of Yes / No can be known from the total value. Therefore, it is possible to grasp the overall tendency of the selection results while hiding the individual selection results.

  In the above, for the expected values E (X) and E (Y) of the two probability distributions ρ and η, E (X) = 1 and E (Y) = 0. Good. For example, E (X) = 1, E (Y) =-1, etc. may be used.

  Next, a modification of this embodiment will be described. FIG. 6 shows another configuration example of the totalization system. An answer / totaling device 3 is provided between the answering device 1 and the totaling device 2. In the aggregation system shown in FIG. 6, the aggregation work is hierarchized. That is, the answer / counter 3 summarizes the answers from the plurality of aggregators 2, generates its own answer, and transmits both information to the aggregator 2 of the final aggregator. The counting device 2 obtains a final counting result based on the counting result and the answer result received from the answer / counting device 3.

  In addition, when the answer of a question can be derived from the answers of other questions, the answer of the question can be omitted. For example, as described above, the question for selecting only one content from the contents 1 to 12 to be distributed at a specific time includes 12 questions (questions 1 to 1) asking whether or not each of the contents 1 to 12 is distributed. It can be converted into question 12).

  In the case of the above-mentioned question, it is guaranteed that only one question is answered as Yes among the 12 questions, and all the answers to the remaining questions are No. Therefore, for example, the answer to question 12 can be determined from the answers to question 1 to question 11. FIG. 7 shows the configuration of the answer information in such a case. The answer information includes only answers from question 1 to question 11.

The answer counting unit 202 of the counting device 2 counts the answers as follows. If it is assumed that answers to all questions have been obtained, the sum of the numbers obtained as answers to questions 1 to 12 (the sum of the numbers over all questions and all answering devices) is (E ₁ +11 XE ₂ ) × N is expected. However, E ₁ is the expected value of the probability distribution corresponding to the answer of Yes, E ₂ is the expected value of the probability distribution corresponding to the answer of No, N is say the resulting answer device 1 Is a number.

  The value obtained by subtracting the actual total value (the total value of the numerical values of the questions 1 to 11 obtained from the N answering devices 1) from the total value (expected value) is as follows. It is expected to be the total value of the numerical values corresponding to the answer to question 12 below. Therefore, the overall tendency of the answer results of questions 1 to 12 can be grasped from the answer results of questions 1 to 11. Further, the communication amount can be suppressed by communicating only a part of the answer results as described above.

  Moreover, you may correct | amend a total value as follows as needed. Although it is desirable that the total value of the numerical values obtained as answers to all questions matches the expected value of the total value theoretically calculated based on the probability distribution, there is actually an error. Therefore, the answer counting unit 202 corrects the error.

For example, when it is guaranteed that only one of the questions 1/2/3 is Yes, the following occurs. The random variables used for each question are A, B, and C, the values corresponding to the answers to each question from the j-th answering device 1 are a _j , b _j , and c _j, and the total number of answering devices 1 is N Then, the expected value of the total value (Σa _j + Σb _j + Σc _j ) is N. However, the expected value of the probability distribution corresponding to the answer “Yes” is 1, and the expected value of the probability distribution corresponding to the answer “No” is 0. Using this, the answer counting unit 202 corrects the total value (Σa _j , Σb _j , Σc _j ) of the answers to each question as follows, and corrects the corrected values (a ′, b ′, c ′). obtain. As a result, the accuracy of the counting result can be improved.
a ′ = Σa _j × N / {Σa _j + Σb _j + Σc _j }
b ′ = Σb _j × N / {Σa _j + Σb _j + Σc _j }
c ′ = Σc _j × N / {Σa _j + Σb _j + Σc _j }

  Moreover, you may further decompose | disassemble a question so that an answer may be obtained for every answer of Yes / No. For example, the question asking whether or not the content 1 is distributed is converted into a question asking whether or not the content 1 is distributed (Yes) and a question asking whether or not the content 1 is distributed (No). Each question is in a two-choice format, and Yes / No (with / without such) is newly prepared as an answer to each question. In addition, the answers to each question are relevant. For example, if the answer to the question asking whether or not the content 1 is distributed (Yes) is Yes (received the content 1), the answer to the question asking whether or not the content 1 is distributed (No) No. As a result, anonymity is reduced, but the accuracy of aggregation is improved.

  Further, multiple answers may be obtained for the same question. Also in this case, the numerical value corresponding to the answer is individually determined for each answer. By increasing the number of answers in this way, anonymity is reduced, but the accuracy of aggregation is improved.

  The embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above with reference to the drawings. However, the specific configuration is not limited to this embodiment, and includes design changes and the like without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, the present invention may be applied to a questionnaire survey conducted on an unspecified large number of subjects in order to obtain an answer result tendency, not to obtain an accurate answer result.

It is a schematic block diagram which shows the structure of the totalization system by one Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the reply apparatus with which the totalization system by one Embodiment of this invention is provided. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the total device with which the total system by one Embodiment of this invention is provided. It is a reference figure which shows the structure of the answer with respect to the question in one Embodiment of this invention. It is a reference figure showing probability distribution in one embodiment of the present invention. It is a schematic block diagram which shows the other structural example of the totalization system by one Embodiment of this invention. It is a reference figure which shows the other structural example of the answer with respect to the question in one Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Answer apparatus, 2 ... Aggregation apparatus, 3 ... Answer and aggregation apparatus, 101, 201 ... Memory | storage part, 102 ... Answer production | generation part, 103, 203 ... Communication part, 104 204, display unit, 105, 205 ... operation unit, 106, 206 ... control unit, 202 ... answer counting unit

Claims (8)

A counting system comprising a plurality of answering devices that generate numerical values based on selection information indicating alternative selection results for a predetermined item, and a counting device that counts the selection results based on the numerical values,
The answering device is:
Generating means for generating the numerical value using probability distributions having different expected values according to the selection information;
Transmission means for transmitting the generated numerical value to the counting device,
The counting device is
Receiving means for receiving the numerical values from a plurality of the answering devices;
And a summing means for summing up the received numerical values. When the selection information is plural and it is possible to determine the contents of some of the selection information from the contents of the other selection information,
The transmission means transmits the numerical value generated for each of the selection information other than a part of the selection information to the counting device,
The summing means sums up the received numerical values, and subtracts the received total value of the numerical values from an expected value of the total value of the numerical values related to all the selection information, The total system according to claim 1, wherein a total value of the numerical values related to the selection information is calculated. When the selection information is plural and it is possible to determine the contents of some of the selection information from the contents of the other selection information,
The aggregation device further includes a correcting unit that corrects the total value of the numerical values summed for each selection information based on a total value of the numerical values related to all the selection information and an expected value of the total value. The tabulation system according to claim 1. Generating means for generating numerical values using probability distributions having different expected values according to selection information indicating alternative selection results;
A transmission means for transmitting the generated numerical value to a counting device that counts the selection results based on the numerical value;
An answering device characterized by comprising:   When the selection information is plural and the content of some of the selection information can be determined from the content of the other selection information, the transmission means The answering device according to claim 4, wherein the numerical value generated for each selection information is transmitted to the counting device. Receiving means for receiving the numerical values from a plurality of answering devices that generate numerical values using probability distributions having different expected values according to selection information indicating alternative selection results;
A summing means for summing the received numbers;
A tally device characterized by comprising: When the selection information is plural and it is possible to determine the contents of some of the selection information from the contents of the other selection information,
The receiving means receives the numerical value generated for each of the selection information other than a part of the selection information from the answering device,
The summing means sums up the received numerical values, and subtracts the received total value of the numerical values from an expected value of the total value of the numerical values related to all the selection information, The totaling device according to claim 6, wherein a total value of the numerical values related to the selection information is calculated. When the selection information is plural and it is possible to determine the contents of some of the selection information from the contents of the other selection information, the total value of the numerical values related to all the selection information, and The tabulation apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising a correcting unit that corrects a total value of the numerical values summed for each selection information based on an expected value of the total value.

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