JP2019200546A - Agent server - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide, in real time, information about a facility to be visited from now to a passenger of a vehicle.SOLUTION: An agent server 20 comprises: a state estimation unit 25 which determines whether a vehicle is a vehicle which has not visited or has already visited a facility to be visited; a question sentence generation unit 223 which generates a question sentence about the facility to be visited; a reply information generation unit 224 which collects a reply for the question sentence from the passenger of the vehicle which has already visited the facility to be visited and generates information about the facility to be visited; and an agent dialog management and speech generation unit 26 which transmits the information about the facility to be visited to the vehicle which has not visited the facility.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

  The present invention relates to an agent server for a vehicle.

  In recent years, Web services have been provided in which users post evaluation information (word-of-mouth) on facilities such as stores, and other users browse the evaluation information and use it for store selection and the like. For example, in Patent Document 1, a keyword related to a facility and a keyword related to evaluation are extracted from conversation in the vehicle, position information indicating a stop position of the vehicle, map information including facility information around the position indicated by the position information, and vehicle Using the keywords related to the facility at the stop position of the vehicle, the stopping facility where the vehicle stopped was determined, and the facility information related to the stopping facility and the evaluation information extracted about the stopping facility were used to generate and generate the evaluation information of the stopping facility An evaluation information posting device for posting evaluation information to an evaluation information management server is disclosed.

International Publication No. 2014/174640

  Conventionally, when going on a trip or an event, information is collected through an information providing site, a booklet, a travel agency, etc., and a destination is determined or a procedure such as a reservation is performed. However, these pieces of information are often information based on preliminary interviews, and this information is not always correct at the time of visit. In recent years, there are an increasing number of information providing sites that can post reviews, but there are few people who post at travel sites, and there is generally a time lag before information is provided. Also, even if an individual posts real-time information and impressions using SNS (Social Networking Service), it cannot be aggregated.

  In particular, it is difficult to accurately determine in advance information about instantaneous situations such as accidents and congestion levels. Even if a new review about the instantaneous situation is posted on the information providing site, useful information is missed if the information providing site is not accessed in a car moving to the site. For this reason, in the conventional information collection method, sufficient satisfaction may not be obtained, and inconveniences such as a need to change the plan may occur due to changes in the situation at the time of information collection and visit.

  In addition, since the format of the information providing site is not unified, the listability and searchability are low. In addition, detailed information that is not provided as articles may contribute to subsequent satisfaction.

  In addition, in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, the evaluation value for the visited facility is estimated by voice recognition of the conversation in the vehicle, but there is no guarantee that the conversation related to the facility visited in the vehicle is made. Therefore, there is no guarantee that useful word-of-mouth information can be generated.

  An object of the present invention made in view of such circumstances is to provide an agent server capable of providing, in real time, information on a facility to be visited to a vehicle passenger.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, an agent server according to the present invention is an agent server for a vehicle, and the visited vehicle has visited the visited facility or the visited vehicle has not visited the visited facility. Information about the visited facility by collecting answers to the question sentence from passengers of the visited vehicles And an agent dialogue management / speech generation unit for transmitting information on the visited facility to the unvisited vehicle.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, it becomes possible to provide the passenger | crew of a vehicle with the information regarding the facility which will visit from now on in real time.

It is a figure explaining the outline | summary of the agent system containing the agent server which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention, and operation | movement of a visit reservation phase. It is a figure explaining the outline | summary of the agent system containing the agent server which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention, and operation | movement of a visit determination phase. It is a figure explaining the outline | summary of the agent system containing the agent server which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention, and the operation | movement of the information collection phase after a visit. It is a figure explaining the outline | summary of the agent system containing the agent server which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention, and operation | movement of an update information expansion | deployment phase.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an overview of an agent system 1 including an agent server and an operation of a visit reservation phase according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  The agent system 1 includes a vehicle 10, an agent server 20, and an information provision / reservation server 30. The vehicle 10 has an Internet communication function and communicates with the agent server 20. The vehicle 10 directly communicates with the information provision / reservation server 30 for information that does not need to be processed by the agent server 20.

  Specifically, the vehicle 10 includes an information terminal 11, a communication unit 12, a user ID input unit 13, a position information / speed information acquisition unit 14, a route information acquisition unit 15, a voice processing unit 16, and an information And a presentation unit 17. The information terminal 11 includes a part of the communication unit 12, the user ID input unit 13, the position information / speed information acquisition unit 14, the route information acquisition unit 15, the voice processing unit 16, and the information presentation unit 17. It is good also as a structure provided.

  The information terminal 11 is an agent capable of interacting with a passenger of the vehicle 10 (hereinafter referred to as “user”), and presents information to the user in accordance with an instruction from the user.

  The communication unit 12 performs wireless communication such as Wi-Fi (registered trademark) with the agent server 20 and the information provision / reservation server 30.

  The user ID input unit 13 receives an input of a user ID necessary for using the agent system 1 and outputs the user ID to the information terminal 11 when the user ID is input by a user operation.

  The position information / speed information acquisition unit 14 acquires the position information and speed information of the vehicle 10 and outputs the position information and speed information to the information terminal 11. For example, the position information is detected by a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver mounted on the vehicle 10, and the speed information is detected by a speed sensor mounted on the vehicle 10.

  The route information acquisition unit 15 acquires route information including information on the destination address of the traveling vehicle and information about the route to the destination from the car navigation system mounted on the vehicle 10.

  The audio processing unit 16 acquires an audio signal input to the microphone by the user, performs processing such as noise removal and AD conversion, and outputs the processed audio processing signal to the information terminal 11.

  The information presentation unit 17 presents the information acquired by the information terminal 11 to the user by displaying an image on a display or outputting sound from a speaker.

  The agent server 20 acquires information regarding the facility visited by the vehicle 10 from the vehicle 10 and transmits information regarding the facility to another vehicle 10 that is about to visit the facility. Specifically, the agent server 20 includes a user ID management unit 21, an external service cooperation unit 22, a schedule management unit 23, an utterance intention understanding unit 24, a situation estimation unit 25, and an agent dialogue management / utterance generation unit. 26. In FIG. 1, the situation estimation unit 25 and the agent dialogue management / speech generation unit 26 are not shown, and the description thereof will be described later.

  The user ID management unit 21 manages the user ID acquired from the vehicle 10.

  The external service cooperation unit 22 communicates with the information provision / reservation server 30 to transmit / receive information. Specifically, the external service cooperation unit 22 includes an inter-service ID conversion unit 221, a reservation information reflection unit 222, a question sentence generation unit 223, a response information generation unit 224, an update information inquiry unit 225, an information presentation A sentence generation unit 226. In FIG. 1, the question sentence generation unit 223, the response information generation unit 224, the update information inquiry unit 225, and the information presentation sentence generation unit 226 are not shown, and the description will be given later.

  The inter-service ID conversion unit 221 converts the user ID acquired from the user ID management unit 21 and generates an ID after conversion (hereinafter referred to as “post-conversion ID”).

  When the user reserves the facility, the reservation information reflecting unit 222 acquires the reservation information including the reservation date and time and the facility address from the information providing / reservation server 30, and outputs the reservation information to the schedule management unit 23.

  The schedule management unit 23 has a function of storing a visit schedule. When a user reserves a facility, the schedule management unit 23 manages the reservation information in association with the user ID of the user.

  The utterance intention understanding unit 24 analyzes the speech processing signal acquired from the vehicle 10 using any known technique such as morphological analysis.

  The information provision / reservation server 30 manages information about facilities that the vehicle 10 can visit. Specifically, the information provision / reservation server 30 includes a vehicle service cooperation unit 31, a user ID management unit 32, an information presentation / reservation management unit 33, a storage unit 34, an inquiry item generation unit 35, and a real-time update. Part 36. In FIG. 1, illustration of the inquiry item generation unit 35 and the real-time update unit 36 is omitted, and description thereof will be described later.

  The vehicle service cooperation part 31 communicates with the agent server 20 and transmits / receives information.

  The user ID management unit 32 manages the converted ID acquired from the agent server 20.

  The information presentation / reservation management unit 33 generates information about the facility and manages the reservation information of the facility.

  The storage unit 34 stores information regarding facilities. Information about facilities is updated from time to time.

<Visit reservation phase>
The operation of the visit reservation phase of the agent system 1 will be described with reference to FIG. When the user ID is input from the user ID input unit 13 by the user operation, the information terminal 11 transmits the user ID to the agent server 20 via the communication unit 12. When acquiring the user ID from the vehicle 10, the user ID management unit 21 of the agent server 20 manages the user ID and outputs the user ID to the inter-service ID conversion unit 221.

  The inter-service ID conversion unit 221 converts the user ID to generate a converted ID, and transmits the converted ID to the information provision / reservation server 30. When the vehicle service cooperation unit 31 of the information provision / reservation server 30 acquires the converted ID from the agent server 20, it outputs the converted ID to the user ID management unit 32. The user ID management unit 32 manages the post-conversion ID input from the vehicle service cooperation unit 31.

  Next, the user accesses the information provision / reservation server 30 by operating the vehicle 10 by manual input or voice input, acquires information about the facility, and makes a reservation of the use date and time of the facility. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the information provision / reservation server 30 is accessed by operating the vehicle 10 by voice input.

  When the audio processing signal is input from the audio processing unit 16, the information terminal 11 transmits the audio processing signal to the agent server 20 via the communication unit 12. When the speech intention understanding unit 24 of the agent server 20 acquires the voice processing signal from the vehicle 10, it analyzes the voice processing signal, estimates the instruction content for the information provision / reservation server 30, and instructs the information provision / reservation server 30. The instruction information shown is generated. Then, the utterance intention understanding unit 24 transmits the instruction information to the information provision / reservation server 30 via the external service cooperation unit 22. Upon obtaining the instruction information from the agent server 20, the vehicle service cooperation unit 31 of the information provision / reservation server 30 outputs the instruction information to the information presentation / reservation management unit 33.

  The information presentation / reservation management unit 33 generates information about the facility according to the instruction information when the instruction information requests information about the facility, and transmits the information to the agent server 20 via the vehicle service cooperation unit 31. . The external service cooperation unit 22 of the agent server 20 transmits information regarding the facility acquired from the information provision / reservation server 30 to the vehicle 10. The communication unit 12 of the vehicle 10 outputs information about the facility acquired from the information provision / reservation server 30 to the information terminal 11, and the information terminal 11 outputs information about the facility to the information presentation unit 17.

  In addition, when the instruction information requests facility reservation, the information presentation / reservation management unit 33 reserves the facility according to the instruction information, manages the reservation information, and stores the reservation information in the agent server 20. Send to. The reservation information reflecting unit 222 of the agent server 20 outputs the reservation information acquired from the information presentation / reservation management unit 33 to the schedule management unit 23.

  When the user sets the destination using the car navigation system, the route information acquisition unit 15 acquires the route information from the car navigation system.

<Visit judgment phase>
Next, the operation in the visit determination phase of the agent system 1 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the outline of the agent system 1 and the operation of the visit determination phase.

  When the information terminal 11 acquires the position information and speed information of the vehicle 10 from the position information / speed information acquisition unit 14, the information terminal 11 transmits the position information and speed information to the agent server 20 via the communication unit 12.

  When the information terminal 11 acquires the route information from the route information acquisition unit 15, the information terminal 11 transmits the route information to the agent server 20 via the communication unit 12.

  The situation estimation unit 25 acquires position information / speed information and route information from the vehicle 10 and acquires reservation information from the schedule management unit 23. Based on the acquired information, time information, and the like, before the vehicle 10 visits the facility (hereinafter referred to as “visit target facility”) that has requested the information provision / reservation server 30 to provide information or make a reservation (not yet). Visit) or after returning home or moving (visited). That is, the situation estimation unit 25 determines whether the vehicle 10 is an unvisited vehicle that has not visited the visited facility or a visited vehicle that has visited the visited facility.

  For example, the reservation date of the facility included in the reservation information is compared with the current date, and if the current date is earlier than the reservation date of the facility, the vehicle 10 is determined to be an unvisited vehicle. . It is determined that the facility address included in the reservation information is the same as the destination address included in the route information acquisition, or that the vehicle 10 is heading to the facility address included in the reservation information from the position information / speed information. If it is possible, since the vehicle 10 is in the middle of the facility to be visited, the situation estimation unit 25 determines that the vehicle 10 is an unvisited vehicle. In addition, for example, when it can be determined from the position information / speed information that the vehicle 10 moves to the address of the facility included in the reservation information, stops at the address for a predetermined time, and then moves away from the address, The estimation unit 25 determines that the vehicle 10 is a visited vehicle.

<Post-visit information collection phase>
Next, the operation in the post-visit information collection phase will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an outline of the post-visit information collection phase of the agent system 1.

  If the situation estimation unit 25 determines that the vehicle 10 is a visited vehicle, the situation estimation unit 25 generates a question sentence for the user to ask the question sentence generation unit 223 about information about the facility such as the impression and evaluation of the facility from the user. Outputs question text generation instructions.

  When the question sentence generation instruction is input from the situation estimation unit 25, the question sentence generation unit 223 outputs an inquiry item generation instruction to the information provision / reservation server 30 so as to generate an inquiry item. Here, the inquiry item is an item of information to be added or updated regarding the facility to be visited. The vehicle service cooperation unit 31 of the information provision / reservation server 30 outputs the inquiry item generation instruction acquired from the agent server 20 to the inquiry item generation unit 35.

  When an inquiry item generation instruction is input from the vehicle service cooperation unit 31, the inquiry item generation unit 35 generates an inquiry item and outputs the inquiry item to the agent server 20 via the vehicle service cooperation unit 31. The inquiry item may be prepared in advance, or may be inquired mainly on necessary information (accident, road closure, congestion situation, etc.) in real time based on the obtained feedback.

  The question sentence generation unit 223 generates a question sentence related to the facility to be visited based on the inquiry item acquired from the information provision / reservation server 30, and outputs the question sentence to the agent dialogue management / utterance generation unit 26. For example, when the inquiry item has a satisfaction level, the question message generation unit 223 generates a question message such as “Are you satisfied with the use of the facility?” And the inquiry item is the degree of congestion in the facility. In this case, a question sentence such as “Is the facility congested?” Is generated, and if the inquiry item is the degree of congestion of the route to the facility, “Is there a traffic jam or accident to the facility?” Is generated.

  When the question message is input from the question message generation unit 223, the agent dialogue management / utterance generation unit 26 transmits the question message to the vehicle 10. When the communication unit 12 of the vehicle 10 acquires the question text from the agent dialogue management / utterance generation unit 26, the communication unit 12 outputs the question text to the information terminal 11, and the information terminal 11 outputs the question text to the information presentation unit 17. The information presenting unit 17 may display the question sentence on a display or may output the sound from a speaker. The agent dialogue management / utterance generation unit 26 is not limited to the question sentence, and may transmit conversation sentences on various topics to the vehicle 10.

  Here, whether or not the user provides information (that is, an answer to the question text) is arbitrary. Therefore, the agent server 20 may have a function of giving some incentive to the user who has provided useful information in order to make the user provide information more actively. For example, coupons or points for a predetermined product or service may be issued based on the amount of information provided or the evaluation of others by the content provided.

  The voice processing unit 16 recognizes a conversation in the vehicle that starts with an inquiry from the information terminal 11 and outputs a voice processing signal to the information terminal 11. When the audio processing signal is input from the audio processing unit 16, the information terminal 11 transmits the audio processing signal to the agent server 20 via the communication unit 12. When the speech intention understanding unit 24 of the agent server 20 acquires the speech processing signal from the vehicle 10, the speech processing signal is analyzed to understand the user's speech intention and outputs an answer to the question sentence to the response information generation unit 224. .

  The response information generation unit 224 collects answers to the question text from the utterance intention understanding unit 24, generates information about the visited facility, and transmits the information as response information to the information provision / reservation server 30. The vehicle service cooperation unit 31 of the information provision / reservation server 30 outputs the response information acquired from the agent server 20 to the real-time update unit 36.

  Here, the response information generation unit 224 may confirm with the user whether or not content confirmation and information provision are possible before transmitting the response information to the information provision / reservation server 30. Further, the reply information generation unit 224 may filter inappropriate information such as personal information among the answers to the question sentence, and transmit only the information determined to be appropriate to the information provision / reservation server 30.

  The real-time update unit 36 outputs the response information acquired from the vehicle service cooperation unit 31 to the storage unit 34. Therefore, information on the facility is stored in the storage unit 34 in real time.

<Update information deployment phase>
Next, the operation of the update information expansion phase will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the outline of the agent system 1 and the operation in the update information expansion phase.

  In the update information development phase, the unvisited vehicle 10-2 that has not visited the visited facility receives the response information (information on the visited facility) obtained by the visited vehicle 10-1 that has visited the same facility as the agent. Obtain from the server 20. The agent server 20 may push the reply information to the unvisited vehicle 10-2 every time the reply information is updated, or send reply information to the periodic inquiry from the unvisited vehicle 10-2. You may send it. In the present embodiment, when the reply information is updated, the agent server 20 extracts only the updated information and transmits it to the unvisited vehicle 10-2.

  When the situation estimation unit 25 determines that the vehicle 10-2 is an unvisited vehicle, the situation estimation unit 25 outputs an update information inquiry instruction to the update information inquiry unit 225.

  The update information inquiry unit 225 transmits the update information inquiry instruction input from the situation estimation unit 25 to the information provision / reservation server 30. The vehicle service cooperation unit 31 of the information provision / reservation server 30 outputs the update information inquiry instruction acquired from the agent server 20 to the information presentation / reservation management unit 33.

  When the update information inquiry instruction is input from the vehicle service cooperation unit 31, the information presentation / reservation management unit 33 does not transmit to the vehicle 10-2 of the response information regarding the visited facility stored in the storage unit 34. Response information is acquired and transmitted to the agent server 20 via the vehicle service cooperation unit 31 as updated response information.

  The update information inquiry unit 225 of the agent server 20 outputs the updated response information acquired from the information provision / reservation server 30 to the information presentation statement generation unit 226.

  The information presentation sentence generation unit 226 compares the response information before the update with the response information after the update, extracts the difference to generate an information presentation sentence, and outputs the information presentation sentence to the agent dialogue management / utterance generation unit 26 To do.

  The agent dialogue management / utterance generation unit 26 transmits the information presentation sentence acquired from the information presentation sentence generation unit 226 to the unvisited vehicle 10-2. The communication unit 12 of the unvisited vehicle 10-2 outputs the information presentation sentence acquired from the agent dialogue management / utterance generation unit 26 to the information terminal 11, and the information terminal 11 outputs the information presentation sentence to the information presentation unit 17. For example, the information presenting unit 17 is “~ seems to be crowded.” “~ Seems to be in a line.” “There is a voice of dissatisfaction with.” "It seems better to do it."

  As described above, in the agent system 1, the information terminal 11 of the visited vehicle 10-1 that has visited a facility reserved at a tourist site of various information providers, etc., asks the user both questions, Utterances related to impressions, evaluations, and knowledge based on actual experience are accumulated, and the agent server 20 feeds back to the information provision / reservation server 30. The information provision / reservation server 30 organizes the fed back information and updates / adds useful information in real time to the user of the unvisited vehicle 10-2. The agent server 20 provides the information organized by the information provision / reservation server 30 to the information terminal 11 of the unvisited vehicle 10-2 by conversation or text display.

  Conventionally, even if the conversation in the vehicle is recognized by voice, if the conversation about the facility to be visited is not made in the vehicle, the information about the facility to be visited cannot be obtained. On the other hand, the agent server 20 according to the present invention generates a question text related to the visited facility, and collects answers to the question text related to the visited facility from the user of the visited vehicle. Therefore, according to this invention, it becomes possible to improve the ratio which can acquire the information regarding a visit object facility from the user of a visited vehicle.

  Conventionally, the determination as to whether or not the vehicle 10 has visited the facility has been made by analogy with the route information, and thus there has been a case where the determination cannot be made accurately. On the other hand, when the user reserves a facility, the agent server 20 according to the present invention manages the reservation information in the schedule management unit 23, and the situation estimation unit 25 cooperates with the reservation information in the vehicle 10 to visit the facility to be visited. It is possible to accurately determine whether or not the user has visited.

  Further, conventionally, it takes time to obtain the information after the information on the facility to be visited is provided. On the other hand, the agent server 20 according to the present invention pushes the information on the visited facility to the unvisited vehicle or transmits the inquiry for the periodic inquiry from the unvisited vehicle. It is possible to provide information on the facility to be visited in real time.

  In addition, as an extended function, the agent system 1 may acquire information related to the facility to be visited using information such as posting to the SNS when the user's SNS account and profile information are known in advance. . At that time, if the user himself / herself provides information about the facility to be visited, not the guess by the agent server 20, an incentive (such as discounting the use facility or giving points) may be given to both. Further, by exchanging experience information between the vehicles 10 without using the information provision / reservation server 30, real-time information exchange may be performed even in the vicinity of the site. The communication means at that time may use inter-vehicle communication or may mediate a server.

  A computer may be used to function as the agent server 20. Such a computer can be realized by storing a program describing the processing contents for realizing the function of the agent server 20 in a storage unit of the computer, and reading and executing the program by the CPU of the computer. it can.

  The program may be recorded on a computer readable medium. If a computer-readable medium is used, it can be installed on a computer. Here, the computer-readable medium on which the program is recorded may be a non-transitory recording medium. The non-transitory recording medium is not particularly limited, but may be a recording medium such as a CD-ROM or a DVD-ROM.

  Although the above embodiment has been described as a representative example, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many changes and substitutions can be made within the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, the present invention should not be construed as being limited by the above-described embodiments, and various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the claims. For example, it is possible to combine a plurality of constituent blocks described in the configuration diagram of the embodiment into one, or to divide one constituent block.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Agent system 10 Vehicle 11 Information terminal 12 Communication part 13 User ID input part 14 Location information / speed information acquisition part 15 Route information acquisition part 16 Voice processing part 17 Information presentation part 20 Agent server 21 User ID management part 22 External service cooperation part 23 Schedule management unit 24 Speaking intention understanding unit 25 Situation estimation unit 26 Agent dialogue management / speech generation unit 30 Information provision / reservation server 31 Vehicle service cooperation unit 32 User ID management unit 33 Information presentation / reservation management unit 34 Storage unit 35 Inquiry item Generation unit 36 Real-time update unit 221 Inter-service ID conversion unit 222 Reservation information reflection unit 223 Question sentence generation unit 224 Response information generation unit 225 Update information inquiry unit 226 Information presentation sentence generation unit

Claims (1)

An agent server for a vehicle,
A situation estimation unit that determines whether the vehicle is an unvisited vehicle that has not visited the visited facility or a visited vehicle that has visited the visited facility;
A question sentence generation unit for generating a question sentence about the facility to be visited;
A response information generating unit that collects answers to the question sentence from passengers of the visited vehicle and generates information about the visited facility;
Agent dialogue management and utterance generation unit for transmitting information on the visited facility to the unvisited vehicle,
An agent server comprising:

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