JP5584603B2 - Information providing system and information providing apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an information providing system and an information providing apparatus that provide information according to a user's request.

  In recent years, with the spread of the Internet, various information has been provided from various server devices. And the amount of information provided in this way is steadily increasing, and even if it was information that could not be obtained immediately before, it has become possible to obtain it immediately from the Internet. Convenience is high.

  For this reason, it has become possible to acquire information from the Internet with various devices. The same applies to in-vehicle devices such as a car navigation device, and an in-vehicle device that connects to the Internet and obtains various information has been proposed (for example, Patent Document 1).

  Such an in-vehicle device has a voice recognition function because it is difficult for a driving driver to input characters, and this function enables information acquisition from the Internet.

  In particular, in such an in-vehicle device, a keyword used for identifying the user's interest is extracted from the user's conversation, and further, the user's mental state is detected, and information corresponding to the information is searched from a website and collected. To do.

JP 2009-294790 A

  However, in the in-vehicle device, the passenger's preference is determined from the conversation between the passengers in the vehicle, and information is dynamically searched and collected from a source such as a website, and the conversation between the passengers is required. . Therefore, one of the passengers in the vehicle cannot actively search from the Internet. Moreover, since it is necessary to detect the mental state of the user, the configuration and processing become complicated.

  On the other hand, it is conceivable to use speech recognition to convert speech into text data, and to search and collect information on the Internet using such text data. However, there is an enormous amount of information on the Internet. For this reason, it is not easy to obtain desired information.

  That is, even if voice is converted into text data using voice recognition, the user needs to speak many words in order to narrow down information. However, the driver needs to pay attention to the driving operation, and it is difficult to say that he / she speaks a lot of words to narrow down the information and that he / she performs more appropriate operation for the operation of the device based on voice recognition. It is. In recent years, there is a demand for an apparatus capable of intuitively searching for information without being limited to an apparatus used in a vehicle.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems of the prior art, and provides an information providing system and an information providing apparatus that can reduce an operation request by a user and can be intuitively operated by the user. With the goal.

In order to solve the above-described problems and achieve the object, the present invention is an information providing system that provides information according to a user's request, and is set according to the user's intended operation of the user a storage unit for storing the first dictionary data relating the source type and the keyword, a source for providing information and a second dictionary data associating said source type is, acquisition for acquiring text data corresponding to the request A determination unit that determines one or more source types based on a keyword and the first dictionary data included in the text data acquired by the acquisition unit, and the determination based on the second dictionary data A search unit that selects a source associated with the source type determined by the unit and searches for information from the selected source, and the search unit And an information providing unit for presenting the searched information.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce operation requests by the user and allow the user to operate intuitively.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an outline of an information providing method according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of the information providing system and the in-vehicle device according to the present embodiment. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the voice recognition server. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the information analysis server. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of analysis dictionary data. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of analysis data. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of the selection screen. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a content playback screen. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing an outline of a processing procedure executed by the in-vehicle device. FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an outline of a processing procedure executed by the voice recognition server. FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an outline of a processing procedure executed by the information analysis server. FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the information providing system and the mobile terminal device according to the present embodiment.

  Exemplary embodiments of an information providing system and an information providing apparatus according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following, an outline of an information providing method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1, and then an example of an information providing system and an information providing apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. It will be explained using. Here, an in-vehicle device is described as an example of an embodiment as an information providing device according to the present invention, but the information providing device to which the information providing method described in the present application is applicable is not limited to the in-vehicle device, It may be a portable mobile terminal device (PND, mobile phone, mobile display terminal, etc.) having a function of searching and providing the searched information. The information providing device is an example of a user terminal device.

  First, an outline of the information providing method according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overview of an information providing method according to the present embodiment.

  The information providing method according to the present embodiment determines a source type to be searched based on text data according to a user's request, searches information according to the text data from a source related to the source type, and sends the information to the user. To be presented.

  Note that the source type is a type set based on an operation intended by the user, such as “see”, “listen”, and “go”. Such source type is associated with one or more sources in advance.

  The source means a device that can provide information, for example. For example, as a source on the Internet, there are various servers such as a web server and a database server. Here, the description will be made on the assumption that there is one website on one web server. However, when there are a plurality of websites on one web server, each website is a source.

  Here, as an example, the source type when the user intends the operation “view” is “source type A”, and the source type when the user aims the operation “listen” is “source type B”. The source type when the user intends to “go” is “source type C”.

  The source related to source type A is a source that provides video information (hereinafter referred to as “video site”), and the source related to source type B is a website that provides music information (hereinafter referred to as “music site”). It is assumed that the website regarding the source type C is a website providing regional information (hereinafter referred to as “regional information site”).

  The source related to the source type is set in advance by dictionary data. Specifically, the dictionary data associates information that associates the source type A with a predetermined video site, information that associates the source type B with a predetermined music site, and a source type C and a predetermined area information site. Information. Note that there may be one or more sources associated with each source type.

  The information provided by the video site includes various types of video content, the information provided by the music site includes various types of music content, and the information provided by the regional information site includes various types of local information content. It is. These contents can be acquired from each site by addressing.

  As shown in FIG. 1A, it is assumed that the user P has issued the word “ΔΔΔ”. At this time, the voice “ΔΔΔ” is input to the in-vehicle device 1 (see (1) in FIG. 1). “ΔΔΔ” is a keyword for search, and is, for example, a singer name or a facility name.

  The in-vehicle device 1 digitally converts the input voice “ΔΔΔ” into voice data and transmits the voice data to the voice recognition server (see (2) in FIG. 1). The voice recognition server 2 performs voice recognition of the voice data received from the in-vehicle device 1 and converts the voice data into text data (see (3) in FIG. 1).

  The text data thus converted by the voice recognition server 2 is transmitted to the in-vehicle device 1 as a voice recognition result (see (4) in FIG. 1). When the in-vehicle device 1 receives text data as a speech recognition result from the speech recognition server 2, the in-vehicle device 1 transmits the text data to the information analysis server 3 (see (5) in FIG. 1).

  When the information analysis server 3 receives the text data from the in-vehicle device 1, the information analysis server 3 analyzes the text data. The text data transmitted from the in-vehicle device 1 includes data indicating “ΔΔΔ”, and the information analysis server 3 refers to the analysis dictionary data to obtain the information of the source type associated with “ΔΔΔ”. decide.

  For example, when “ΔΔΔ” is associated with source type A and source type B in the analysis dictionary data, the information analysis server 3 determines that the source type associated with “ΔΔΔ” is the source type A and the source type. The type B is determined.

  Then, the information analysis server 3 searches for information related to “ΔΔΔ” from the sources related to the determined source type (see (6) in FIG. 1). As described above, the information analysis server 3 includes information in which the source type and the source are associated with each other in the analysis dictionary data, and determines a source related to the source type with reference to the information.

  Specifically, a predetermined moving image site is associated with the source type A, and the information analysis server 3 searches the moving image site for information related to “ΔΔΔ”. In addition, a predetermined music site is associated with the source type B, and the information analysis server 3 searches for music content related to “ΔΔΔ” from the music site.

  Thus, since the source is associated with the source type corresponding to “ΔΔΔ” in advance, the search range of “ΔΔΔ” can be narrowed down, and the efficiency of the search process can be improved. .

  Subsequently, the information analysis server 3 transmits the search result to the in-vehicle device 1 (see (7) in FIG. 1). The in-vehicle device 1 that has received the transmission result presents a selection screen (an example of a request screen) for selecting the source type to the user P when the search result includes information on a plurality of source types.

  Here, since the source information related to the source type A and the source information related to the source type B are included, a button 4a for selecting the source type A as shown in FIG. A button 4b for selecting the source type B is presented on the selection screen. In this case, the user's operation “view” is displayed on the button 4a for selecting the source type A, and the user's operation “listening” is displayed on the button 4b for selecting the source type B. ing. Accordingly, the user can determine the selection of the source based on the purpose of the operation that the user has searched for information to do, so that an intuitive and easy-to-understand operation is possible.

  In this embodiment, the selection screen for operating the buttons is used. However, the selection screen is not limited to this as long as it requests the selection of the source type. For example, the source type may be selected by voice input. In this case, if the word “view” displayed on the button 4a or “listen” displayed on the button 4b is uttered, the speech recognition process is executed, and the source type can be selected.

  When the user P selects any button on the selection screen, information on the source type corresponding to the selected button is presented to the user P (see (8) in FIG. 1). For example, when the source type A is selected on the selection screen, a list of moving image content names related to “ΔΔΔ” is presented as shown in FIG.

  Then, when the user P selects a desired moving image content from the displayed moving image content name, the moving image content related to “ΔΔΔ” is reproduced by the in-vehicle device 1. Instead of displaying the moving image content name in a list and selecting the moving image content, a plurality of moving image contents related to “ΔΔΔ” may be sequentially reproduced.

  When the transmission result received from the information analysis server 3 includes only information related to one source type, the source type selection request is not made and the content is displayed in a list. In this case as well, a plurality of contents may be successively presented to the user sequentially without displaying the list.

  Also, the content to be played back can be acquired from the information analysis server 3 (the information analysis server 3 once acquires and stores the information and provides the stored information), and has the content to be played back. It is also possible to obtain directly from the source without going through the information analysis server 3. The in-vehicle device 1 requests content to be reproduced from the information analysis server 3 and the source, and reproduces the content transmitted from the information analysis server 3 and the source. The content is included in the search result transmitted from the information analysis server 3 (the information analysis server 3 performs the search based on the analysis result, further acquires the content corresponding to the search result, and the search result and the content are included in the in-vehicle device. 1).

  In this way, the user P can obtain desired information regarding “ΔΔΔ” by uttering “ΔΔΔ” as a keyword and selecting either “view” or “listen”. it can. Therefore, compared with the case where a search is performed by repeating character input and voice input, the operation request by the user is reduced, and the user can operate intuitively.

  Note that regional analysis dictionary data is prepared as analysis dictionary data, and the keyword and source type are associated with each other based on the current position information and destination information transmitted from the in-vehicle device 1, and the source type and source. You can also change the association with. By doing in this way, it becomes possible to obtain the information according to the area.

  Below, the Example about the information provision system and vehicle equipment which applied the information provision method demonstrated using FIG. 1 is described in detail.

  First, the configuration of the information providing system and the information providing apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the information providing system and the in-vehicle device (information providing device) according to the present embodiment. Here, as an information providing device according to the present invention, an in-vehicle device is described as an example of the embodiment, but the device to which the information providing method described in the present application can be applied is not limited to the in-vehicle device, and information is searched. In addition, it may be a portable portable terminal device (PND, cellular phone, portable display terminal, etc.) having a function of providing searched information.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the information providing system S includes an in-vehicle device 10, a mobile terminal device 20, a voice recognition server 30, and an information analysis server 40. The in-vehicle device 10 is connected to the voice recognition server 30 and the information analysis server 40 via the mobile terminal device 20 so as to be communicable.

  Specifically, the in-vehicle device 10 and the mobile terminal device 20 can communicate with each other by wireless communication, and the voice recognition server 30 and the information analysis server 40 are connected to the Internet 22. The mobile terminal device 20 is connected to the Internet 22 via the radio base station 21.

  Since the information providing system S according to the present embodiment is configured as described above, the in-vehicle device 10 can communicate with the voice recognition server 30 and the information analysis server 40 by the mobile terminal device 20. The connection form is not limited to this.

  For example, the vehicle-mounted device 10 may be configured to communicate with the voice recognition server 30 or the information analysis server 40 via the base station 21. In this case, the in-vehicle device 10 needs to be provided with a wireless communication I / F for communicating with the base station 21. Further, the voice recognition server 30 and the information analysis server 40 may be connected not to the Internet 22 but to other networks such as a telephone communication network.

In addition, here, as an example of a source that provides information such as content, the web servers 50 ₁ to 50 ₆ are described as being connected to the Internet 22, but the information may be provided. For example, a server such as a database server or a file transfer server may be used. For easy understanding, it is assumed here that each of the web servers 50 ₁ to 50 ₆ has only one website.

  First, the configuration of the in-vehicle device 10 will be described. The in-vehicle device 10 has functions such as a car navigation function and a car audio function, but FIG. 2 mainly shows components necessary for explaining the features of the in-vehicle device 10. The description about the component is omitted.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the in-vehicle device 10 includes a short-range communication unit 11, a microphone 12, a display operation unit 13, a speaker 14, and a control unit 15.

  The short-range communication unit 11 establishes a communication link with the portable terminal device 20 using short-range wireless communication such as Bluetooth (registered trademark), and is carried with the vehicle-mounted device 10 using each established communication link. Communication processing with the terminal device 20 is performed.

  Here, Bluetooth (registered trademark) is a short-range wireless communication standard for performing wireless communication with a radius of several tens of meters using a 2.4 GHz frequency band. In recent years, it has been applied to electronic devices such as mobile phones and personal computers. Widely applied.

  Here, a case where communication between the in-vehicle device 10 and the mobile terminal device 20 is performed using Bluetooth (registered trademark) will be described, but other types such as Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi: registered trademark) and ZigBee (ZigBee: registered trademark) are described. A wireless communication standard may be used. Moreover, it is good also as performing communication between the vehicle-mounted apparatus 10 and the portable terminal device 20 by wired communication.

  The microphone 12 inputs sound emitted by the user of the in-vehicle device 10. The display operation unit 13 includes a display unit that displays character information and image information, and an operation unit that receives a voice input start operation and a list selection operation.

  For example, the display unit of the display operation unit 13 includes a display that displays text data and image information, and the operation unit displays a “voice input start button” for performing a voice input start operation, content, and source type. “Select button” etc. to select are provided.

  Note that it is not necessary to limit the display provided in the display operation unit 13 or the components that perform various operations. Therefore, a touch panel type liquid crystal display that accepts an input by sensing a pressure of a finger or a pointing device and also serves as a display output may be used.

  The speaker 14 is an audio output device for reproducing music content such as a music site, a CD (Compact Disc), and Internet radio. Here, the speaker 14 is configured to be included in the in-vehicle device 10, but may be configured to be a separate body.

  The control unit 15 is a control unit that performs overall control of the in-vehicle device 10. The control unit 15 further includes a voice acquisition unit 15a, a text acquisition unit 15b, a search request unit 15c, an information acquisition unit 15d, and an information provision processing unit 15e.

  FIG. 2 shows a functional configuration of the control unit 15. The control unit 15 physically includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a ROM (Read Only Memory), and a RAM (Random Access Memory). ).

  Then, the CPU reads various programs from the ROM and executes them using the RAM as a work area, so that the voice acquisition unit 15a, the text acquisition unit 15b, the search request unit 15c, the information acquisition unit 15d, the information provision processing unit 15e, etc. Function as.

  The voice acquisition unit 15 a is a processing unit that acquires a user voice output from the microphone 12 and transfers the voice to the voice recognition server 30 via the mobile terminal device 20.

  Specifically, the voice acquisition unit 15a acquires a voice output from the speaker 14 when, for example, a “voice input start button” is pressed by a driver or a passenger. The voice acquisition unit 15 a digitizes voice information acquired from the speaker 14 and transmits the digitized information to the voice recognition server 30 via the mobile terminal device 20. The voice acquisition unit 15 a functions as a voice input unit that inputs a user's voice and converts a voice signal, and a voice signal transmission unit that transmits a voice signal from the voice input unit to the voice recognition server 30.

  The text acquisition unit 15b acquires a speech recognition result by the speech recognition server 30. This speech recognition result is a speech recognition result for the speech data transmitted by the speech acquisition unit 15a, and is transmitted from the speech recognition server 30 as text data. As will be described later, the text data includes keywords and reliability information. The text acquisition unit 15b functions as a terminal side speech recognition result receiving unit that receives the speech recognition result from the speech recognition server 30.

  The search request unit 15 c is a processing unit that performs processing for delivering the text data acquired by the text acquisition unit 15 b to the information analysis server 40 via the mobile terminal device 20. The search request unit 15c functions as a terminal-side speech recognition result transmission unit that transmits the speech recognition result acquired by the text acquisition unit 15b to the information analysis server 40.

  The information acquisition unit 15 d acquires information (analysis result information) transmitted from the information analysis server 40 via the mobile terminal device 20. Information transmitted from the information analysis server 40 is, for example, name and address information of various contents, information on the source type, and the like.

  The information provision processing unit 15e outputs the information acquired by the information acquisition unit 15d from the display unit of the display operation unit 13 or the speaker 14, for example, triggered by an operation of the display operation unit 13 on the operation unit. The information provision processing unit 15 e functions as an information provision unit together with the display operation unit 13 and the speaker 14. The information provision processing unit 15e displays the name of the content on the display unit of the display operation unit 13, or acquires and reproduces the content based on the address information of the content.

  The information provision processing unit 15e includes applications such as a video playback application 15f, a sound playback application 15g, and a browser application 15h. The moving image reproduction application 15f reproduces the moving image content and outputs it from the display unit of the display operation unit 13 or the speaker 14. The sound reproduction application 15g reproduces the audio content and outputs it from the speaker 14. The browser application 15h reproduces content such as a web page and outputs it from the display unit of the display operation unit 13.

  In this example, the information provision processing unit 15e includes the moving image reproduction application 15f, the sound reproduction application 15g, and the browser application 15h. However, the configuration of the information provision processing unit 15e is not limited thereto. The information provision processing unit 15e may have any configuration as long as information such as content acquired by the information acquisition unit 15d can be output from the display unit of the display operation unit 13 or the speaker 14.

  Next, the configuration of the voice recognition server 30 will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, the voice recognition server 30 includes a communication I / F 31, a storage unit 32, and a control unit 33. The storage unit 32 stores dictionary information 32a.

  The communication I / F 31 includes a communication device for transmitting / receiving data to / from other apparatuses via the Internet 22. For example, the communication I / F 31 acquires audio data transmitted from the in-vehicle device 10 via the Internet 22. Further, the communication I / F 31 transmits the voice recognition result to the in-vehicle device 10 via the Internet 22.

  The storage unit 32 is a storage unit configured by a storage device such as a nonvolatile memory or a hard disk drive. The storage unit 32 stores information including a plurality of speech recognition dictionary data as dictionary information 32a.

  The control unit 33 is a control unit that performs overall control of the voice recognition server 30. The control unit 33 further includes a voice data acquisition unit 33a, a voice recognition processing unit 33b, and a voice recognition result transmission unit 33c.

  3 shows a functional configuration of the control unit 33. The control unit 33 is physically configured by a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a ROM (Read Only Memory), and a RAM (Random Access Memory). ).

  The CPU reads out various programs from the ROM and executes them using the RAM as a work area, thereby functioning as a voice data acquisition unit 33a, a voice recognition processing unit 33b, a voice recognition result transmission unit 33c, and the like.

  If the voice data acquisition unit 33a receives voice data (an example of a voice signal) from the in-vehicle device 10, the voice data acquisition unit 33a transmits the received voice data to the voice recognition processing unit 33b.

  The voice recognition processing unit 33b performs voice recognition processing on the voice data received from the voice data acquisition unit 33a. As described above, the storage unit 32 stores a plurality of dictionary data for speech recognition, and the speech recognition processing unit 33b performs speech recognition processing for each dictionary data.

  Specifically, the voice recognition processing unit 33b performs, for each dictionary data, a process for extracting a keyword included in the voice data from the voice data received from the voice data acquisition unit 33a, and extracts the extracted keyword and its reliability. Are output for each dictionary data.

  For example, it is assumed that there is first speech recognition dictionary data and second speech recognition dictionary data, and speech recognition processing is performed on speech data when the user of the in-vehicle device 10 utters “restaurant”. In this case, in the first speech recognition dictionary data, for example, a speech recognition result of “restaurant (reliability 90%)” is obtained, and in the second speech recognition dictionary data, for example, “rest line (reliability 60%)”. This results in a speech recognition result.

  When the speech recognition by the speech recognition processing unit 33b ends, the speech recognition result transmission unit 33c transmits the speech recognition result for each dictionary data to the in-vehicle device 10 as text data.

  As described above, the voice recognition server 30 extracts a keyword for determining the source type from the voice data transmitted from the in-vehicle device 10 and transmits the extracted keyword to the in-vehicle device 10. Instead of extracting a keyword, a result obtained by simply converting voice data into text data may be output to the in-vehicle device 10 as a voice recognition result. In this case, keywords are extracted by the in-vehicle device 10 or the information analysis server 40.

  Next, the configuration of the information analysis server 40 will be described with reference to FIG. As illustrated in FIG. 4, the information analysis server 40 includes a communication I / F 41, a storage unit 42, and a control unit 43. The storage unit 42 stores source information such as the first dictionary data 42a and the second dictionary data 42b.

  The communication I / F 41 includes a communication device for transmitting / receiving data to / from other apparatuses via the Internet 22. For example, the communication I / F 41 acquires text data transmitted from the in-vehicle device 10 via the Internet 22. Further, the communication I / F 41 transmits the search result to the in-vehicle device 10 via the Internet 22.

  The storage unit 42 is a storage unit configured by a storage device such as a nonvolatile memory or a hard disk drive. The first dictionary data 42a is data that associates a keyword with a source type. The first dictionary data 42a is data that associates a keyword with a source type for each keyword, but is not limited to this, and may be data that associates a source type with a keyword for each source type, for example.

  FIG. 5A shows an example of the first dictionary data 42a. In the example shown in the drawing, source type A and source type B are associated with the keyword “ΔΔΔ”, and source type A and source type C are associated with the keyword “XXX”. Yes.

  For example, the source type A is a source type when the user intends an operation of “seeing”, and the source type B is a source type when the user aims at an operation of “listening”. C is a source type when the user intends to “go”.

  The source type is not limited to these. For example, various types can be provided, such as a source type when the user intends an “eating” operation and a source type when the user aims at an “playing” operation. In addition, here, an example in which the source type is a type set based on an operation intended by the user will be described, but the present invention is not limited to this.

  The second dictionary data 42b is data that associates a source type with a source. The second dictionary data 42b is data that associates the source type with the source for each source type, but is not limited thereto, and may be data that associates the source with the source type for each source, for example. Further, in order to associate the source with the source type, the second dictionary data 42b includes information that associates the source identification information (source address or the like) for identifying the source and the source type.

  FIG. 5B shows an example of the second dictionary data 42b. In the example shown in the figure, the video site X and the video site W are associated with the source type “source type A”, and the music site V and the Internet radio site Z are associated with the source type “source type B”. Is associated.

Here, the video sites X and W, the music site V, the Internet radio site Z, and the regional information sites E and F are websites provided by the web servers 50 ₁ to 50 ₆ , respectively. The regional information site is a website that provides regional information, for example, a website that provides various facility information such as restaurants, convenience stores, amusement parks, golf courses, and ranking information by region. is there.

  Returning to FIG. 4, the description will be continued. The control unit 43 is a control unit that performs overall control of the information analysis server 40. The control unit 43 further includes a text acquisition unit 43a, a determination unit 43b, a search unit 43c, and a search result transmission unit 43d.

  4 shows a functional configuration of the control unit 43. The control unit 43 physically includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a ROM (Read Only Memory), and a RAM (Random Access Memory). ).

  The CPU reads various programs from the ROM and executes them using the RAM as a work area, thereby functioning as a text acquisition unit 43a, a determination unit 43b, a search unit 43c, a search result transmission unit 43d, and the like.

  If the text acquisition unit 43a receives text data from the in-vehicle device 10, the text acquisition unit 43a transmits the received text data to the determination unit 43b. The text acquisition unit 43a functions as a server-side speech recognition result receiving unit that receives a speech recognition result transmitted from the in-vehicle device 10.

  The determination unit 43b determines the source type to be searched based on the text data received from the text acquisition unit 43a. Specifically, the determination unit 43 b determines the source type associated with the keyword included in the text data received from the text acquisition unit 43 a based on the first dictionary data 42 a stored in the storage unit 42.

  For example, if the first dictionary data 42a is the data shown in FIG. 5A, the text data received from the text acquisition unit 43a includes text data “XXX”. The unit 43b determines the source type A and the source type C as search source types.

  For example, when the first voice recognition dictionary data is recognized as “restaurant” and the second voice recognition dictionary data is recognized as “restline”, the determination unit 43b selects the one with higher reliability as a keyword. select.

  For example, when the text data received from the text acquisition unit 43a includes “restaurant (reliability 90%)” and “rest line (reliability 60%)” as speech recognition results, the one with higher reliability The “restaurant” is selected as a keyword.

The search unit 43c searches the web servers 50 ₁ to 50 ₆ that are external sources for information according to the text data acquired by the text acquisition unit 43a from the sources associated with the source type determined by the determination unit 43b. The search unit 43c functions as a source selection unit that selects source identification information associated with the source type and an information search acquisition unit that searches and acquires information from the corresponding source based on the source identification information selected by the source selection unit.

  Specifically, the search unit 43 c selects a source associated with the source type determined by the determination unit 43 b based on the second dictionary data 42 b stored in the storage unit 42. And the information according to the text data acquired by the text acquisition part 43a is searched from the selected source.

  For example, it is assumed that the first dictionary data 42a is the data shown in FIG. 5A, the second dictionary data 42b is the data shown in FIG. 5B, and the text data received from the text acquisition unit 43a. It is assumed that the text data “XXX” is included.

  In this case, the source types determined by the determination unit 43b are the source type A and the source type C, and the search unit 43c selects the moving image sites X and W and the regional information sites E and F as search target sources. Then, the moving image content and the local information content related to “XXX” are searched from the moving image sites X and W and the local information sites E and F.

  Therefore, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, the search results by the search unit 43c include the content W2 and W3 of the video site W as the video content related to “XXX”. Related regional information contents include web pages E1 and F1 of regional information sites E and F.

  For example, the search result by the search unit 43c includes source type information corresponding to the searched source. In the example shown in FIG. 6, it is shown that the source type A and the source type C are included as the search result.

  If the search result transmission unit 43d acquires the search result from the search unit 43c, the search result transmission unit 43d transmits the search result to the in-vehicle device 10. This search result transmission part 43d functions as an information analysis result transmission part which transmits the information analysis result including the search acquisition information by the search part 43c to the vehicle-mounted apparatus 10. In addition to the search result (search acquisition information), the search result transmission unit 43d can also transmit source information associated with the source type determined by the determination unit 43b. In this case, the search result transmission unit 43d functions as an information analysis result transmission unit that transmits the information analysis result including the source specifying information selected by the search unit 43c to the in-vehicle device 10.

  Such a search result is transmitted to the in-vehicle device 10 by the search result transmitting unit 43d and acquired by the information acquisition unit 15d of the in-vehicle device 10 shown in FIG. The information provision processing unit 15e of the in-vehicle device 10 presents the search result acquired by the information acquisition unit 15d to the user of the in-vehicle device 10.

  Here, when information from a plurality of sources related to a plurality of source types is included in the search result, the information provision processing unit 15 e displays a selection screen on the display unit of the display operation unit 13. For example, the keyword is “□□□”, and the source types A to C are associated with the keyword “□□□” as shown in FIG. 5A in the first dictionary data 42a. In this case, the information provision processing unit 15e displays a selection screen as shown in FIG.

  Note that it is not limited to this as long as it requests the selection of the source type. For example, the voice input to the microphone 12 may be acquired by the information provision processing unit 15e, and the information provision processing unit 15e may be able to select the source type by voice input.

  In addition, for example, when the information provision processing unit 15e determines that the vehicle is moving by a position detection unit or a vehicle speed detection unit (not illustrated) of the in-vehicle device 10, the information provision processing unit 15e may switch from the selection screen to the selection by voice.

  In FIG. 7, a button 25a is a button for selecting the source type A, a button 25b is a button for selecting the source type B, and a button 25c is a button for selecting the source type C. The user of the in-vehicle device 10 selects the source type by selecting the buttons 25 a to 25 c from the operation unit of the display operation unit 13.

  For example, when the user wants to watch a video about “□□□”, the user presses the button 25a, and as shown in FIG. 8, the information provision processing unit 15e reproduces the video content about “□□□”. And displayed on the display unit of the display operation unit 13.

  In this case, the user action “view” is displayed on the button 25a for selecting the source type A, and the user action “listen” is displayed on the button 25b for selecting the source type B. On the button 25c for selecting the source type C, the user's action “go” is displayed. Accordingly, the user can determine the selection of the source based on the purpose of the operation that the user has searched for information to do, so that an intuitive and easy-to-understand operation is possible.

  When the source type is selected by voice input, if the words “view” displayed on the button 25a, “listen” displayed on the button 25b, or “go” displayed on the button 25c are uttered, voice recognition is performed. Processing is executed and the source type can be selected.

  In addition, when there are a plurality of moving image contents related to “□□□”, the information provision processing unit 15e displays a list of moving image content names on the display unit of the display operation unit 13 to allow the user to select moving image content. When the user selects the moving image content, the information provision processing unit 15e reproduces the selected moving image content and displays it on the display unit of the display operation unit 13.

  Further, the information provision processing unit 15e can sequentially reproduce a plurality of moving image contents related to “ΔΔΔ” instead of displaying the moving image content names in a list and selecting the moving image content. For example, when the information provision processing unit 15e determines that the position detection unit or the vehicle speed detection unit (not illustrated) of the in-vehicle device 10 is moving, the information provision processing unit 15e does not display a list and displays a plurality of moving image contents related to “ΔΔΔ”. May be reproduced sequentially.

  In addition, when reproducing the moving image content, the information provision processing unit 15e acquires the moving image content from the web server 50 based on the address information of the moving image content included in the search result received from the information analysis server 40 and reproduces it.

For example, when the address information of the moving image content is address information indicating an address in the web server 50 ₃ , the information provision processing unit 15 e acquires the moving image content from the web server 50 ₃ and reproduces it.

  Next, a specific operation of the in-vehicle device 10 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an outline of a processing procedure executed by the control unit 15 of the in-vehicle device 10. This process is started when a “voice input start button” that performs a voice input start operation is pressed by the user. These processes are executed (implemented) by a microcomputer (CPU) that constitutes the control unit 15 based on a program. For convenience, the relationship with the functional blocks shown in FIG. This will be described using the expression that each functional block executes.

  As shown in FIG. 9, in the in-vehicle device 10, the voice acquisition unit 15a starts recording the voice of the user input from the microphone 12 (step S20). When the recording is finished, the voice acquisition unit 15a converts the recorded voice into voice data of a predetermined format and transmits it to the voice recognition server 30 (step S21).

  Subsequently, the text acquisition unit 15b receives a speech recognition result transmitted from the speech recognition server 30 to the in-vehicle device 10 (step S22). This voice recognition result is a voice recognition result performed by the voice recognition server 30 on the voice data transmitted in step S21.

  The speech recognition result received by the text acquisition unit 15b is transmitted to the information analysis server 40 by the search request unit 15c (step S23). Thereafter, the search result transmitted from the information analysis server 40 is received by the information acquisition unit 15d (step S24). The search result acquired by the information acquisition unit 15d is a search result for the speech recognition result transmitted in step S23.

  The search result received by the information acquisition unit 15d is transmitted from the information acquisition unit 15d to the information provision processing unit 15e. The information provision processing unit 15e determines whether or not the search result received from the information acquisition unit 15d includes information of a plurality of source types (step S25).

  In this process, when the information provision processing unit 15e determines that the search result includes information of a plurality of source types (step S25, Yes), the information providing processing unit 15e causes the display unit of the display operation unit 13 to select the source type. A selection screen is displayed (step S26). Then, the information providing process 15 part e waits until the user selects a source type (step S27).

  If it is determined in step S25 that the search result does not include information on a plurality of source types (No in step S25), or if it is determined in step S27 that the user has selected a source type (step S27). , Yes), the information provision processing unit 15e proceeds to step S28.

  In step S28, the information provision processing unit 15e determines whether or not a plurality of contents are included in the search result. In this process, when it is determined that the search result includes a plurality of contents (step S28, Yes), the information provision processing unit 15e displays a content list for causing the display unit of the display operation unit 13 to select the content. (Step S29). This content list is, for example, a list as shown in FIG.

  Subsequently, the information provision processing unit 15e waits until the user selects a content (step S30). When it is determined that the user has selected content (Yes at Step S30), or when it is determined at Step S28 that the search result does not include a plurality of contents (No at Step S28). ), An information presentation process for acquiring and reproducing the content from the source is performed (step S31).

  Next, a specific operation of the voice recognition server 30 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an outline of a processing procedure executed by the control unit 33 of the voice recognition server 30. This process is a process started when the voice data acquisition unit 33a of the voice recognition server 30 receives voice data from the in-vehicle device 10.

  As shown in FIG. 10, in the speech recognition server 30, the speech recognition processing unit 33b executes speech recognition processing on the speech data acquired by the speech data acquisition unit 33a (step S40). By this voice recognition process, the voice data is converted into text data.

  Subsequently, the voice recognition result transmission unit 33c transmits the text data converted by the voice recognition processing unit 33b to the in-vehicle device 10 (step S41).

  As described above, the voice recognition server 30 performs voice recognition processing each time voice data is transmitted from the in-vehicle device 10, and transmits text data as a voice recognition result to the in-vehicle device 10.

  Next, a specific operation of the information analysis server 40 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an outline of a processing procedure executed by the control unit 43 of the information analysis server 40. This process is started when the text acquisition unit 43a of the information analysis server 40 receives search text data from the in-vehicle device 10.

  As shown in FIG. 11, in the information analysis server 40, the determination unit 43b analyzes the text data received by the text acquisition unit 43a (step S50), and determines the source type (step S51). Specifically, the source type determined by the determination unit 43b is a source type obtained by extracting the source type corresponding to the keyword included in the text data from the first dictionary data 42a.

  Subsequently, the search unit 43c searches for information related to the text data acquired by the text acquisition unit 43a from the sources related to the determined source type (step S52). And the search result transmission part 43d transmits the search result by the search part 43c to the vehicle-mounted apparatus 10 (step S53).

  As described above, the information analysis server 40 stores the first dictionary data 42a that associates a source with a preset source type, and text data transmitted from the in-vehicle device 10 based on the first dictionary data 42a. To determine the source type of the search target.

  And the source linked | related with the determined source classification is selected based on the 2nd dictionary data 42b, and the information according to the text data transmitted from the vehicle-mounted apparatus 10 is searched from the selected source.

  Such a search result is transmitted to the in-vehicle device 10 by the search result transmitting unit 43d and acquired by the information acquisition unit 15d of the in-vehicle device 10 shown in FIG. Then, the information provision processing unit 15e of the in-vehicle device 10 presents the search result acquired by the information acquisition unit 15d to the user of the in-vehicle device 10.

  Therefore, the user of the in-vehicle device 10 can acquire desired content from a vast amount of content simply by issuing a keyword. That is, the operation request by the user is reduced, and the user can operate intuitively.

  In addition, when a plurality of source types are associated with a keyword issued by the user, the source type of the source from which the content is collected can be determined by causing the user to select the source type. Thereby, the operation request by the user is reduced, and the user can operate intuitively.

  In the above description, when there are a plurality of source types determined by the determination unit 43b, the search unit 43c searches from the source related to the source type determined by the determination unit 43b. Will do.

  Therefore, when there are a plurality of source types determined by the determining unit 43b, the determining unit 43b may first transmit information for prompting the in-vehicle device 10 to select the source type. By doing so, it is possible to reduce the load of search processing by the information analysis server 40.

  In this case, the information provision processing unit 15e of the in-vehicle device 10 requests selection of the source type through a selection screen or the like. If the user selects the request, the information provision processing unit 15e transmits the information of the source type selected by the user to the information analysis server 40. And the search part 43c of the information analysis server 40 searches from the source regarding the source classification which the user selected, and the search result is transmitted to the vehicle-mounted apparatus 10 from the search result transmission part 43d.

  Also in such a method, when there are a plurality of source types determined by the determining unit 43b, the information provision processing unit 15e requests the user to select a source type, and the source type selected in response to the request Information obtained from sources about can be presented.

  In the above description, the search result transmitted by the search result transmission unit 43d of the information analysis server 40 includes the content name, content address information, and the like. However, the content itself may be transmitted. In particular, when there are few search results, the content itself can be transmitted to the in-vehicle device 10 as it is, thereby reducing the burden of transmission / reception processing between the in-vehicle device 10 and the source.

  In the above description, the voice recognition server 30 and the information analysis server 40 are arranged outside the in-vehicle device 10, but any or all of these functions may be provided in the in-vehicle device 10. By doing in this way, the communication burden between the vehicle-mounted apparatus 10 and an external device can be reduced.

  In the above description, the in-vehicle device 10 communicates with the voice recognition server 30 and the information analysis server 40 via the mobile terminal device 20. However, the in-vehicle device 10 can be replaced with the mobile terminal device 20 instead of the in-vehicle device 10. is there. FIG. 12 is a block diagram in the case where the in-vehicle device 10 is replaced with the mobile terminal device 20. The mobile terminal device 20 is the same as the above-described in-vehicle device 10 except that the short-range communication unit 11 is replaced with the communication I / F 23. Similarly, a microphone 24, a display operation unit 25, a speaker 26, and a control unit 27 are provided.

  The control unit 27 includes a voice acquisition unit 27a, a text acquisition unit 27b, a search request unit 27c, an information acquisition unit 27d, and an information provision processing unit 27e. The information provision processing unit 27e further includes a video reproduction application 27f, Applications such as a sound reproduction application 27g and a browser application 27h are included.

  The communication I / F 23 transmits and receives various data of the control unit 27 via the Internet 22. FIG. 12 is the same as FIG. 2 except that the short-range communication unit 11 is replaced with the communication I / F 23, and thus detailed description thereof is omitted here. By doing in this way, information can be provided to a user who has portable terminal device 20 which is driving a vehicle.

  A plurality of first dictionary data 42a and second dictionary data 42b may be provided. For example, the first dictionary data 42a is provided corresponding to the area, and the first dictionary data 42a for determining the source type based on the current position information and the destination information transmitted from the in-vehicle device 10 and the source to be searched You may change the 2nd dictionary data 42b for determining. As described above, by using the first dictionary data 42a and the second dictionary data 42b corresponding to the current position information and the destination information, it is possible to provide contents with more regional characteristics.

  In the above description, an external source such as a web server or a database server is described as an example of a source associated with the source type. However, the source in the in-vehicle device 10 is associated with the source type, or the external source and the in-vehicle device 10 are associated with each other. Both of the sources may be associated with the source type. For example, the audio function or the car navigation function of the in-vehicle device 10 may be associated with the source type. In this way, the operability of the audio function and the car navigation function can be further improved.

  As described above, some of the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, these are merely examples, and various embodiments can be made based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art including the aspects described in the section of the disclosure of the invention. The present invention can be implemented in other forms that have been modified or improved.

  As described above, the information providing system and the information providing apparatus according to the present invention are suitable for a case where it is desired to reduce an operation request by a user, and are particularly useful when an information search operation is performed using an in-vehicle device. .

S information providing system 1,10 vehicle-mounted device 2,30 voice recognition server 3,40 information analysis server 15 control unit 15a voice acquisition unit 15b text acquisition unit 15c search request unit 15d information acquisition unit 15e information provision processing unit 42 storage unit 42a first 1 dictionary data 42b second dictionary data 43 control unit 43a text acquisition unit 43b determination unit 43c search unit 43d search result transmission unit

Claims (8)

An information providing system for providing information according to a user request,
The user stores a first dictionary data relating the source type and the keywords that are set corresponding to operation of the user of interest, and sources that provide information and a second dictionary data associating said source type A storage unit;
An acquisition unit for acquiring text data in response to the request;
A determination unit that determines one or more of the source types based on a keyword and the first dictionary data included in the text data acquired by the acquisition unit;
A search unit that selects a source associated with the source type determined by the determination unit based on the second dictionary data , and searches for information from the selected source;
An information providing system comprising: an information providing unit that presents information searched by the search unit. The information providing unit
When there are a plurality of source types determined by the determining unit, a request screen requesting selection of the source type is presented, and information acquired from a source related to the source type selected on the request screen is presented. The information providing system according to claim 1. The storage unit
The first dictionary data and the second dictionary data are stored for each region,
The determination unit
Determining the source type based on the first dictionary data of the area according to the current position or destination of the user;
The search unit
The information providing system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the source is selected based on the second dictionary data of an area corresponding to a current position or a destination of the user . A voice acquisition unit for acquiring the voice of the user;
A storage unit for storing a plurality of dictionary data for speech recognition;
For each voice recognition dictionary data, a process for extracting a keyword included in the voice information is performed on the voice information acquired by the voice acquisition unit. And a keyword extraction unit that outputs the reliability thereof ,
The acquisition unit
The information providing system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a keyword having a higher reliability among the plurality of keywords output from the keyword extraction unit is acquired. The source type is
5. The information providing system according to claim 1, comprising at least a source type that provides music information, a source type that provides moving image information, and a source type that provides regional information. In an information providing apparatus that provides information according to a user's request,
The user stores a first dictionary data relating the source type and the keywords that are set corresponding to operation of the user of interest, and sources that provide information and a second dictionary data associating said source type A storage unit;
An acquisition unit for acquiring text data in response to the request;
A determination unit that determines one or more of the source types based on a keyword included in the text data acquired by the acquisition unit and the first dictionary data ;
A search unit that selects a source associated with the source type determined by the determination unit based on the second dictionary data , and searches for information from the selected source;
An information providing apparatus comprising: an information providing unit that presents information searched by the search unit. An information providing system that includes a user terminal device, a voice recognition server, and an information analysis server, and provides information according to a user request to the user by the user terminal device,
The user terminal device
A voice input unit that inputs a user's voice and converts it into a voice signal;
A voice signal transmitting unit that transmits a voice signal from the voice input unit to a voice recognition server;
A terminal side voice recognition result receiving unit for receiving a voice recognition result from the voice recognition server;
A terminal-side speech recognition result transmitting unit that transmits the speech recognition result received by the terminal-side speech recognition result receiving unit to the information analysis server;
An information acquisition unit that selects a source based on an information analysis result from the information analysis server and acquires information from the source;
The voice recognition server
An audio signal receiving unit for receiving an audio signal from the user terminal device;
A voice recognition unit that performs voice recognition processing of the voice signal received by the voice signal receiving unit;
A voice recognition result transmission unit that transmits a voice recognition result by the voice recognition unit to the user terminal device;
The information analysis server
A server side voice recognition result receiving unit for receiving a voice recognition result from the user terminal device;
A first dictionary data relating the source type and the keyword which the user is set corresponding to the operation of the user for the purpose, and a second dictionary data associating source information that specifies a source and said source type A storage unit for storing;
A determination unit that determines one or more of the source types based on a keyword and the first dictionary data included in the speech recognition result received by the server-side speech recognition result receiving unit;
A source selection unit that selects source identification information associated with the source type determined by the determination unit based on the second dictionary data ;
An information providing system comprising: an information analysis result transmitting unit configured to transmit an information analysis result including source specifying information for specifying a source selected by the source selecting unit to the user terminal device. An information providing system that includes a user terminal device, a voice recognition server, and an information analysis server, and provides information according to a user request to the user by the user terminal device,
The user terminal device
A voice input unit that inputs a user's voice and converts it into a voice signal;
A voice signal transmitting unit that transmits a voice signal from the voice input unit to a voice recognition server;
A terminal side voice recognition result receiving unit for receiving a voice recognition result from the voice recognition server;
A terminal-side speech recognition result transmitting unit that transmits the speech recognition result received by the terminal-side speech recognition result receiving unit to the information analysis server;
An information acquisition unit for acquiring an information analysis result from the information analysis server,
The voice recognition server
An audio signal receiving unit for receiving an audio signal from the user terminal device;
A voice recognition unit that performs voice recognition processing of the voice signal received by the voice signal receiving unit;
A voice recognition result transmission unit that transmits a voice recognition result by the voice recognition unit to the user terminal device;
The information analysis server
A server side voice recognition result receiving unit for receiving a voice recognition result from the user terminal device;
A first dictionary data relating the source type and the keyword which the user is set corresponding to the operation of the user for the purpose, and a second dictionary data associating source information that specifies a source and said source type A storage unit for storing;
A determination unit that determines one or more of the source types based on a keyword and the first dictionary data included in the speech recognition result received by the server-side speech recognition result receiving unit;
A source selection unit that selects source identification information associated with the source type determined by the determination unit based on the second dictionary data ;
An information search and acquisition unit for searching and acquiring information from a corresponding source based on the source identification information selected by the source selection unit;
An information providing system comprising: an information analysis result transmitting unit configured to transmit an information analysis result including search acquired information by the information search acquiring unit to the user terminal device.

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