JP5591085B2 - Information providing system, information retrieval device, and in-vehicle device - Google Patents

Description

  BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information providing system that provides information according to a user's request and an information search device such as an in-vehicle device or a mobile terminal device, and in particular, an information providing system and an information search device that can reduce input operations by a user. About.

  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, the conventional vehicle-mounted device cannot always search and collect information according to the user's preference. That is, in the conventional vehicle-mounted device, different information is acquired depending on the conversation content and mental state between passengers.

  Therefore, when a user tries to acquire desired information, it is necessary to input voice information and text information. However, since there is an enormous amount of information on the Internet, the desired information is obtained. It is not easy to do. That is, the user needs to perform a complicated narrowing operation in order to obtain desired information from a vast amount of information.

  However, the driver needs to pay attention to the driving operation and perform complicated operations such as performing operations for narrowing down information or performing more appropriate operations for the operation of the device based on the operations. It is difficult. 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 information search capable of providing information according to user preferences while reducing input operations by the user. An object is to provide a device and an in-vehicle device.

In order to solve the above-described problems and achieve the object, the present invention provides an information providing system for providing information to users of a plurality of information search devices, and acquires an operation history for each user of the information search devices. an operation history acquiring unit that, based on the operation history acquired by the operation history acquiring unit, for each of the user, and determines the preference determination unit one or more preferences from a plurality of preference, the plurality of for each Ki嗜 good before it is determined by the preference determining unit out of preference, an information collecting unit to a corresponding external source or RaOsamu current individually information, the out of the information collected by the information collection unit It obtains information corresponding to the preference of the user for each said user, characterized by comprising an information transmitting unit for transmitting the acquired information to the corresponding front Kijo report retrieval system.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the information according to a user preference can be provided, aiming at reduction of the input operation by a user.

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 operation history information. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of preference analysis dictionary information. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of user preference information. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an outline of a processing procedure executed by the in-vehicle device. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing an outline of a processing procedure executed by the voice recognition server. FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an outline of a processing procedure executed by the information analysis server. FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of the information providing system and the mobile terminal device according to the present embodiment.

  Exemplary embodiments of an information providing system, an information search device, and an in-vehicle device according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following, after describing the outline of the information providing method according to the present invention with reference to FIG. 1, examples of the information providing system, the information retrieval apparatus, and the in-vehicle apparatus according to the present invention are used with reference to FIGS. Will be explained. Here, as an example of the present application, an in-vehicle device is described as an example of the embodiment. However, an information search 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. A portable mobile terminal device (PND, mobile phone, mobile display terminal, etc.) having a function of providing searched information may also be used.

  First, an outline of an information providing method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an outline of an information providing method according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, in the information providing method according to the present embodiment, the user's preference is analyzed based on the operation history by the user of the in-vehicle device (an example of the information search device), and information corresponding to the user's preference is obtained. provide.

  Specifically, as shown in the figure, in the information providing method according to the present embodiment, first, user operation information is transmitted from the in-vehicle device (see (1) in the figure). Here, the operation information is information relating to an operation performed on the in-vehicle device by the user, and specifically, is information on an input operation performed by the user on the in-vehicle device in order to acquire information from an external source.

  The external source includes, for example, various servers such as a web server, a database server, and a file transfer server, but is not limited thereto. In other words, the external server may be any device that provides information that can be processed by the in-vehicle device 10, and may be any device.

  The information analysis server collects user operation information transmitted from each in-vehicle device and updates the operation history information (see (2) in the figure). The information analysis server updates the operation history information for each user.

  Next, the information analysis server determines each user's preference from the user's operation information included in the operation history information. For example, it is assumed that the operation information of the user A includes an access operation (operation A1) to the web page of the ramen shop and an access operation (operation A2) to the web page presenting the ranking of the ramen shop. In this case, the information analysis server determines that the preference of the user A is “ramen” from the operations A1 and A2.

  For example, when the operation information of the user B includes a download operation (operation B1) of music belonging to rock music and an access operation (operation B2) to a website providing rock music information, the information analysis server From the operations B1 and B2, it is determined that the preference of the user B is “rock music”.

  Then, the information analysis server adds the result of determining the user's preference to the user preference information (see (3) in the figure). For example, when the information analysis server determines that the user A likes ramen and the user B likes rock music, the preference information indicating that the user A likes “ramen” (FIG. 1). Is added to the user preference information. Further, the information analysis server adds preference information (preference B shown in FIG. 1) indicating that the user B likes “rock music” as the preference of the user B to the user preference information.

  Next, the information analysis server searches and collects information from an external source based on the user preference information (see (4) in the figure). For example, when the preference information (preference D shown in FIG. 1) indicating that the user likes ramen is included in the user preference information, the information analysis server searches for an external source and collects information about the ramen.

  Here, by setting the relationship between the preference information and the external source of the search destination in advance, it is possible to reduce the search time and the load on the search process compared to searching all external sources. For example, when the preference D, the first website, and the second website are set in association with each other, the information analysis server, in the case of preference information indicating that the user likes ramen, the first website and the second website Search and get information about ramen from

  Note that the information analysis server does not newly acquire information already collected from an external source. Also, the information analysis server deletes information that has passed for a certain period after acquisition. Thereby, the processing load for information acquisition is reduced, and the information acquired from the external source is prevented from increasing without limit.

  The information collected in this way is transmitted to the in-vehicle device of each user by the information analysis server. For example, the information analysis server refers to the user preference information and transmits information corresponding to the preference A, the preference D, and the like as the user preference to the in-vehicle device of the user A (see (5) in the figure).

  The in-vehicle device presents the information transmitted from the information analysis server to the user (see (6) in the figure). The presentation method to the user is a presentation method according to the type of information acquired from the information analysis server. For example, when the information transmitted from the information analysis server is moving image content, the information is output from the display unit and the speaker. For example, when the information transmitted from the information analysis server is music content, the information is output from a speaker.

  Note that when there are a plurality of contents to be transmitted, the information analysis server transmits the information of the contents list to the in-vehicle device without transmitting the contents. With this process, the information analysis server transmits only the content selected by the user of the in-vehicle device, even when there are a large number of contents to be transmitted. Therefore, the load on the information transmission / reception process can be reduced.

  Here, the information analysis server repeatedly performs the above processing, but the already transmitted information is not sent again to the in-vehicle device. Thereby, the user of a vehicle-mounted apparatus can acquire only the newest information among the information which matches preference.

  Therefore, when information is transmitted from the information analysis server, the in-vehicle device presents such information to the user, so that the user can quickly acquire information that suits the taste. For example, when the user A likes ramen, the latest information on ramen can be acquired from the information analysis server.

  The user preference analysis may be performed for each in-vehicle device, and may be performed for each user when there are a plurality of users in one in-vehicle device. When there are a plurality of users in one in-vehicle device, for example, the user can be identified by providing user identification means for identifying the user in the in-vehicle device.

  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 in-vehicle device 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 according to the present embodiment. Here, in this example, the in-vehicle device is described as an example of the embodiment. However, the present invention is not limited to the in-vehicle device, and the portable portable terminal device has a function of searching for information and providing the searched information. (PND, mobile phone, portable display terminal, etc.) may be used.

As shown in FIG. 2, the information providing system S includes a plurality of in-vehicle devices 10 ₁ to 10 _n , a plurality of mobile terminal devices 20 _{1 to} 20 _n , a voice recognition server 30, and an information analysis server 40. Yes. The in-vehicle devices 10 ₁ to 10 _n are communicably connected to the voice recognition server 30 and the information analysis server 40 via the mobile terminal devices 20 _{1 to} 20 _n , respectively.

Specifically, the in-vehicle devices 10 ₁ to 10 _n and the mobile terminal devices 20 _{1 to} 20 _n can communicate by wireless communication, and the voice recognition server 30 and the information analysis server 40 are connected to the Internet 22. Yes. The mobile terminal devices 20 _{1 to} 20 _n are connected to the Internet 22 via the radio base station 21.

In the information providing system S according to the present embodiment, the in-vehicle devices 10 ₁ to 10 _n can communicate with the voice recognition server 30 and the information analysis server 40 by the mobile terminal devices 20 _{1 to} 20 _n . The connection form of each device is not limited to this.

For example, the vehicle-mounted devices 10 ₁ to 10 _n may be configured to communicate with the voice recognition server 30 or the information analysis server 40 via the radio base station 21. In this case, the in-vehicle devices 10 ₁ to 10 _n need to be provided with a wireless communication I / F for communicating with the wireless 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 for providing information such as content, the web servers 50 ₁ to 50 _n will be 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.

First, the configuration of the in-vehicle devices 10 ₁ to 10 _n will be described. The in-vehicle devices 10 ₁ to 10 _n have the same configuration. Here, any or all of the in-vehicle devices 10 ₁ to 10 _n are in-vehicle devices 10. In addition, any or all of the mobile terminal devices 20 _{1 to} 20 _n are referred to as the mobile terminal device 20.

  Although the in-vehicle device 10 has functions such as a car navigation function and a car audio function, FIG. 2 mainly shows components necessary for explaining the features of the in-vehicle device 10. Description of typical components 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. Instead of Bluetooth (registered trademark), other wireless communication standards such as Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi: registered trademark) and ZigBee (ZigBee: registered trademark) 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 for displaying various information such as web pages and image contents, and the operation unit includes a “voice input start button” for performing a voice input start operation. And a “select button” for selecting content from the content list.

  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 audio data such as music content. 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, an information processing unit 15c, and a user identification unit 15d.

  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). ). The CPU reads out various programs from the ROM and executes them using the RAM as a work area, thereby functioning as a voice acquisition unit 15a, a text acquisition unit 15b, an information processing unit 15c, a user identification unit 15d, and the like.

  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 microphone 12 when, for example, a “voice input start button” is pressed by a driver or a passenger. The voice acquisition unit 15 a digitizes the voice information acquired from the microphone 12 and transmits the digitized information to the voice recognition server 30 via the mobile terminal device 20.

  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.

  The information processing unit 15 c performs processing according to the voice recognition result by the voice recognition server 30. For example, the information processing unit 15c acquires an operation instruction given by voice by the user as text data from the voice recognition server 30, and performs processing according to the operation instruction.

  For example, when the operation instruction given by the user by voice is an operation instruction for acquiring information from an external source, the information processing unit 15c acquires the information specified by the operation instruction from the external source and displays the information. It outputs from 13 display parts and the speaker 14. FIG. For example, the information processing unit 15c acquires information such as moving image content, music content, and a web page in response to an operation instruction, and outputs the information from the display unit of the display operation unit 13 or the speaker 14.

  Further, the information processing unit 15 c acquires information transmitted from the information analysis server 40 as described later, and outputs the acquired information from the display unit of the display operation unit 13 or the speaker 14. The information processing unit 15 c functions as an information providing unit together with the display operation unit 13 and the speaker 14.

  In addition, the information processing unit 15 c transmits operation information such as an operation instruction given by the user to the information analysis server 40. When the operation information is transmitted to the information analysis server 40, the information processing unit 15c also transmits information on the user identified by the user identification unit 15d described later.

  The information processing unit 15c does not transmit the operation information every time the operation is performed, but the user's operation information is operated at a predetermined timing, for example, every predetermined time or when the apparatus is turned off (the apparatus is turned off after the transmission is completed). Alternatively, it is transmitted in a batch at the timing of the ON operation (the operation content is stored in a memory that can be held even when the power is turned off).

  The user identification unit 15d executes processing for identifying the user of the in-vehicle device 10. Specifically, the user identification unit 15d identifies the user by, for example, fingerprint identification, voice identification, identification using an ID card, or the like. Since these identification methods are well-known, description is abbreviate | omitted here.

  The user identification is performed by storing the identification data in the user identification unit 15d and identifying the user only by the user identification unit 15d. For example, the identification data is stored in the information analysis server 40. The information analysis server 40 may identify the user. In this case, for example, fingerprint information, voice information, or ID card information is transmitted from the user identification unit 15d to the information analysis server 40, and the information transmitted from the in-vehicle device 10 is compared with the identification data in the information analysis server 40. To identify the user.

  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 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 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. Specifically, the voice recognition processing unit 33b refers to the dictionary information 32a and performs processing for converting voice data received from the voice data acquisition unit 33a into text data.

  When the voice recognition processing unit 33b finishes the voice recognition, the voice recognition result transmission unit 33c transmits the text data that is the voice recognition result to the in-vehicle device 10.

  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 operation history information 42a, preference analysis dictionary information 42b, user preference information 42c, and collection information 42d.

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 operation information transmitted from the in-vehicle device 10 via the Internet 22. The communication I / F 41 transmits information such as content acquired by the information analysis server 40 from the web servers 50 ₁ to 50 _n 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 operation history information 42a is information including a history of operation information of each user of the in-vehicle devices 10 ₁ to 10 _n . Here, it is assumed that the users of the in-vehicle devices 10 ₁ and 10 ₂ are users A and B, respectively.

  FIG. 5 shows an example of the operation history information 42a. In the example shown in the figure, information from operation A1 to operation An that is operation information of user A is included as a history, and information from operation B1 to operation Bn that is operation information of user B is included as a history. ing. Note that only the histories of the users A and B are illustrated here for easy understanding.

  The preference analysis dictionary information 42b is information for determining a user's preference, and is information that associates a keyword included in an operation instruction with a preference element. The preference element is an element for determining the user's preference, and is associated with a weighting amount.

  FIG. 6 shows an example of the preference analysis dictionary information 42b. In the example shown in the figure, the keyword A is associated with the preference element a, the preference element c, and the preference element d, the weighting amount of the preference element a is “15”, and the weighting amount of the preference element c is “5”. The weighting amount of the preference element d is “5”.

  The keyword B is associated with the preference element a, the preference element b, and the preference element e, the weighting amount of the preference element a is “25”, the weighting amount of the preference element b is “10”, and the preference element e The weighting amount is “5”.

  The user preference information 42c includes preference information for each user determined based on the operation history information 42a and the preference analysis dictionary information 42b.

  FIG. 7 shows an example of the user preference information 42c. In the example shown in the figure, the preference of the user A is the preference A and the preference D, and the preference of the user B is the preference A, the preference B, and the preference E.

  The collected information 42d is information collected from an external source for each of the user's preference A, preference B, preference C,. The collected information 42d is information that is repeatedly updated by the control unit 43, and is transmitted to the in-vehicle device 10 by the control unit 43 according to the preference of the user of the in-vehicle device 10.

  The control unit 43 is a control unit that performs overall control of the information analysis server 40. The control unit 43 further includes an operation history acquisition unit 43a, a preference determination unit 43b, an information collection unit 43c, and an information 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 out various programs from the ROM and executes them using the RAM as a work area, thereby functioning as an operation history acquisition unit 43a, a preference determination unit 43b, an information collection unit 43c, an information transmission unit 43d, and the like.

The operation history acquisition unit 43a acquires the operation information history of each user of the in-vehicle devices 10 ₁ to 10 _n and adds it to the operation history information 42a. The information transmitted from each of the in-vehicle devices 10 ₁ to 10 _n is operation information and user identification information, and the operation history acquisition unit 43a identifies the user based on the user identification information and identifies the identified user. Add received operation information to the operation history.

The preference determination unit 43b determines the user preference of each of the in-vehicle devices 10 ₁ to 10 _n based on the operation history acquisition unit 43a stored in the storage unit 42. The user preference determined by the preference determination unit 43b is selected from a plurality of preset preferences A, preference B, preference C,.

  For example, when the operation history information 42a is in the state shown in FIG. 5 and the preference analysis dictionary information 42b is in the state shown in FIG. 6, the preference determination unit 43b determines the preference of the user A as follows, for example. judge.

  First, the preference determination unit 43b reads the user A's operation information A1 to An included in the operation history information 42a, and extracts keywords included in the operation information A1 to An. And the preference determination part 43b reads the preference element and weighting amount corresponding to the extracted keyword from the preference analysis dictionary information 42b, and totals them.

  For example, it is assumed that the operation information A1 of the user A includes the keyword A and the operation information A2 includes the keyword B. In this case, for these keywords, the total of the preference element and the weighting amount is as follows: the preference element a is the weighting amount “40”, the preference element b is the weighting amount “10”, the preference element c is the weighting amount “5”, and the preference element d Is the weighting amount “5”, and the preference element e is the weighting amount “5”.

  In this way, the preference determination unit 43b totals the weighting amounts of the preference elements, and when there is a preference element having a weighting amount equal to or greater than a predetermined amount, the preference determination unit 43b determines that the preference corresponding to the preference element is the user's preference. For example, if the preference element a is a preference element related to pop music and there is a weighting amount that is greater than or equal to a predetermined amount, the preference analysis dictionary information 42b determines that there is a preference A that indicates pop music likes as a user preference.

  The preference determination unit 43b determines the user's preference based on the operation information history of each user according to the above procedure, and updates the user preference information 42c. For example, in the user preference information 42c illustrated in FIG. 7, as described above, the preference of the user A is the preference A and the preference D, and the preference of the user B is the preference A, the preference B, and the preference E. ing.

  The information collection unit 43c collects information from an external source based on the user's preference determined by the preference determination unit 43b as described above. Specifically, the information collection unit 43c refers to the user preference information 42c, and collects information regarding the preference included in the user preference information 42c from an external source.

  For example, when the user preference information 42c is in the state shown in FIG. 6, the information collection unit 43c collects information about the preference A, the preference B, the preference D, and the preference E from an external source. The preference A is included as the preference of the user A, and the preference A is also included in the preference of the user B. However, since the preference is the same A, the information collection unit 43c collects information related to the preference A in duplicate. do not do.

  That is, the information collection unit 43c collects information about preferences in units of preference, rather than collecting information about preferences in units of users. Thereby, it is possible to reduce the load of the information collection processing without collecting information with respect to the same preference.

  Moreover, since the user preference determined by the preference determination unit 43b is selected from a plurality of preset preferences, the preference of the information collection target by the information collection unit 43c may increase without limit. This also reduces the information collection processing load.

  The information collection process by the information collection unit 43c is repeatedly performed, and the information collected by the information collection unit 43c is added to the collection information 42d.

  The information transmission unit 43d transmits the collection information 42d collected by the information collection unit 43c and stored in the storage unit 42 to the in-vehicle device 10. Specifically, the information transmission part 43d extracts the information according to a user preference for every user from the user preference information 42c from the collection information 42d of the memory | storage part 42, and each transmits to the vehicle-mounted apparatus 10 of a user.

  For example, when the user preference information 42c is in the state illustrated in FIG. 7, the information transmission unit 43d extracts information regarding the preference A and the preference D from the collected information 42d and transmits the information to the in-vehicle device 10 of the user A. Further, the information transmission unit 43d extracts information on the preference A, the preference B, and the preference E from the collected information 42d, and transmits the information to the in-vehicle device 10 of the user B.

  Moreover, the information transmission part 43d is information about all of the preferences determined as user preferences by the preference determination unit 43b among the plurality of preset preferences A, preferences B, preferences C, preferences D,. When collected by the collection unit 43c, information corresponding to the user's preference is transmitted to the in-vehicle device 10.

  For example, it is assumed that the user preference information 42c is in the state shown in FIG. 7, and only the preference of the user A and the preference of the user B are included in the user preference information 42c. In this case, when the information collection unit 43c completes the collection of all of the preference A, the preference B, the preference D, and the preference E, the information transmission unit 43d displays information corresponding to the preferences of the users A and B as the users A and B. To the in-vehicle device 10.

  In addition, since the information collection unit 43c repeatedly collects information according to user preferences from an external source, when new information is provided by the external source, new information that has not been collected in the past is collected by the information collection unit 43c. Collected. When there is new information that has not been collected in the past, the information transmission unit 43d transmits the new information to the in-vehicle device 10.

  Next, a specific operation of the in-vehicle device 10 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an outline of a processing procedure executed by the control unit 15 of the in-vehicle device 10.

  This process is repeated while the in-vehicle device 10 is activated, and is executed together with other processes. 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. 8, in the in-vehicle device 10, the control unit 15 determines whether or not a voice operation has been started (step S20). The control unit 15 determines that the voice operation is started when the “voice input start button” for performing the voice input start operation is pressed by the user.

  In this process, if it is determined that the voice operation has been started (step S20, Yes), the user identification unit 15d identifies the user (step S21).

  When the user identification is completed, the voice acquisition unit 15a performs a recording process (step S22). Specifically, the voice acquisition unit 15a starts recording the user's voice input from the microphone 12. Thereafter, when the recording ends, the voice acquisition unit 15a converts the recorded voice into voice data of a predetermined format, and transmits this voice data to the voice recognition server 30 (step S23).

  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 S24). This voice recognition result is a voice recognition result performed by the voice recognition server 30 on the voice data transmitted in step S23.

  The speech recognition result received by the text acquisition unit 15b is processed by the information processing unit 15c. Specifically, the information processing unit 15c executes processing according to the voice recognition result (step S25). For example, when the voice recognition result is an operation instruction indicating that predetermined music content is acquired from the web server 50, the information processing unit 15c acquires the predetermined music content from the web server 50 and reproduces it.

  If it is determined in step S20 that the voice operation has not been started (step S20, No), the information processing unit 15c determines whether information has been received from the information analysis server 40 (step S26).

  In this process, if it is determined that information is received from the information analysis server 40 (step S26, Yes), the information processing unit 15c determines whether there is a plurality of information received from the information analysis server 40 (step S27). . For example, when a list of a plurality of music contents is received from the information analysis server 40, it is determined that there is a plurality of information received from the information analysis server 40, and when the contents themselves are received, it is determined that the received information is one.

  In the present embodiment, the information analysis server 40, when there are a plurality of pieces of relevant information, lists information (hereinafter referred to as a list) that outlines each piece of information (musical form, finding, etc.) for selection by the user. If the number of corresponding information is one, the information itself (content itself, for example, music data itself) is transmitted.

  If it is determined that the information received from the information analysis server 40 is a list (step S27, Yes), the information processing unit 15c displays the received list (step S28). For example, when a list of music contents is received from the information analysis server 40, this list is displayed on the display unit of the display operation unit 13.

  On the other hand, if it is determined that the information received from the information analysis server 40 is not a list (step S27, No), the information processing unit 15c presents the information to the user (step S29). For example, when the information processing unit 15 c receives music content from the information analysis server 40, the information processing unit 15 c outputs a sound corresponding to the music content from the speaker 14. Further, when moving image content is received from the information analysis server 40, an image corresponding to the moving image content is displayed on the display unit of the display operation unit 13.

  If it is determined in step S26 that no information has been received from the information analysis server 40 (No in step S26), the information processing unit 15c determines whether or not information has been selected by the user from the list displayed in step S28. Determination is made (step S30).

  In this process, when it is determined that information has been selected from the list by the user (step S30, Yes), the information processing unit 15c presents the selected information to the user (step S31). For example, when the selected information is music content, the information processing unit 15 c acquires the selected music content from the information analysis server 40 and outputs it from the speaker 14.

  On the other hand, when it is determined that no information has been selected from the list by the user (No at Step S30), the information processing unit 15c determines whether or not an operation information transmission trigger has been triggered (Step S32). For example, when the operation information becomes a predetermined amount or more, or when a predetermined period has elapsed, the information processing unit 15c determines that the operation information has been transmitted.

  If it is determined that the operation information transmission trigger has been received (step S32, Yes), the information processing unit 15c transmits the operation information to the information analysis server 40 (step S33).

  When the processes of steps S25, S28, S29, S31, and S33 are completed, or when it is determined in step S32 that the operation information is not transmitted (step S32, No), the control unit 15 performs the process. finish.

  Next, a specific operation of the voice recognition server 30 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 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. These processes are executed (implemented) by a microcomputer (CPU) constituting the control unit 33 based on a program. However, for the sake of easy understanding of 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 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. 10 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 repeated while the information analysis server 40 is running, and is executed together with other processes. These processes are executed (implemented) by a microcomputer (CPU) constituting the control unit 43 based on a program. For the sake of easy understanding of 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. 10, in the information analysis server 40, the operation history acquisition unit 43a determines whether or not operation information has been received from the in-vehicle device 10 (step S50). In this process, when it is determined that the operation information has been received (step S50, Yes), the operation history acquisition unit 43a adds the received operation information to the operation history information 42a and updates the operation history information 42a (step S51). ).

  Subsequently, the preference determination unit 43b determines the user's preference based on the operation history information 42a updated in step S51 (step S52). And the preference determination part 43b updates the user preference information 42c by the user's preference newly determined in this way (step S53).

  If it is determined in step S50 that the operation information has not been received from the in-vehicle device 10 (No in step S50), the information collection unit 43c determines whether or not an opportunity for information collection has occurred (step S54).

  If it is determined in this process that the information collection has been triggered (step S54, Yes), the information collection unit 43c collects information from an external source based on the user preference information 42c (step S55). Then, the information collection unit 43c adds the information collected from the external source to the collection information 42d, and updates the collection information 42d (step S56). Note that information collection from an external source is not performed based on the preference information of one user, but based on preference information of all users that the information analysis server 40 is responsible for. This is because if information is collected for each user, the same information is collected many times for the same preference, resulting in a very inefficient process.

  If it is determined that the information collection is not triggered (step S54, No), the information transmission unit 43d determines whether the collection information transmission is triggered (step S57). In this process, when it is determined that the collection information transmission trigger has been reached (step S57, Yes), the information transmission unit 43d determines whether there is new information in the collection information 42d (step S58).

  If it is determined that there is new information in the collected information 42d (step S58, Yes), the information transmitting unit 43d reads the new information from the collected information 42d and transmits it to the in-vehicle device 10 (step S59).

  When the processes of steps S53, S56, and S59 are completed, or when it is determined in step S57 that the collection information is not sent (step S57, No), it is determined that there is no new information in step S58. If it is found (No at Step S58), the control unit 43 ends the process.

  As described above, in the information providing system according to the present embodiment, the operation history acquisition unit 43a acquires the history of operations performed by the user of the in-vehicle device 10, and the preference determination unit 43b stores the operations acquired by the operation history acquisition unit 43a. The user's preference is determined based on the history.

  In addition, the information collection unit 43c collects information from an external source based on the user's preference determined by the preference determination unit 43b, and the information transmission unit 43d displays the information collected by the information collection unit 43c on the user's in-vehicle device. 10 to send.

  Therefore, the user of the in-vehicle device 10 for which the preference is determined in this way can automatically acquire information suitable for his / her preference. That is, it is possible to provide information according to the user's preference while reducing the input operation by the user.

  In the above description, when there are a plurality of pieces of information collected by the information collection unit 43c, the information analysis server 40 transmits a list of these pieces of information to the in-vehicle device 10, but the information collection unit 43c collects the information. The information may be transmitted to the in-vehicle device 10. In this case, the information processing unit 15 c of the in-vehicle device 10 can automatically present new information to the user of the in-vehicle device 10 by sequentially reproducing the information transmitted from the information analysis server 40.

  In the above description, the user preference is determined based on the preference analysis dictionary information 42b in which the keyword and the preference element are associated. However, the user preference may be determined by other methods.

  The operation history information 42a stores the history of operation information. However, the position, time zone, destination information, and the like when an operation is performed may be associated with each operation information.

  In this case, for example, the information processing unit 15c acquires information on a position, a time zone, a destination, and the like from a current position information acquisition unit, a timekeeping unit, a route guide unit, and the like (not shown) of the in-vehicle device 10, and information analysis server 40 Is sent along with the operation information. Thereby, a user's preference according to the position at the time of operation, a time slot | zone, a destination, etc. can be determined, and more suitable information can be provided to a user.

  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. Thereby, the communication burden between the vehicle-mounted apparatus 10 and an external device can be reduced.

  In the above description, the operation information is described by taking an operation of acquiring information from an external source such as a web server or a database server as an example. However, the operation information may include an operation instruction for the source in the in-vehicle device 10. Good.

  For example, in addition to an operation instruction for acquiring information from an external server, an operation instruction for a navigation function or a car audio function of the in-vehicle device 10 is transmitted to the information analysis server 40 as operation information. As a result, information such as favorite music and a favorite region can be collected more widely, and the accuracy of preference determination by the preference determination unit 43c can be improved.

  Moreover, you may make it use the operation instruction | indication with respect to the navigation function of the vehicle-mounted apparatus 10 for narrowing down a user preference. For example, a frequently passing area can be grasped, and the information transmitting unit 43d transmits information related to this area with priority, or transmits information on only this area. In this way, the user may be able to provide this preferred information, and the user may be able to do this by setting.

  Although the information analysis server 40 determines the preference for each user, the information analysis server 40 may determine the preference for each vehicle instead of determining the preference for each user. In this case, the information processing unit 15c of the in-vehicle device 10 transmits the vehicle ID and the like to the information analysis server 40 together with the operation information.

  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. 11 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, an information processing unit 27c, and a user identification unit 27d. FIG. 11 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. Also in this case, like the in-vehicle device 10, any or all of the functions of the voice recognition server 30 and the information analysis server 40 may be provided in the mobile terminal device 20.

  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 in-vehicle device according to the present invention are useful when an information acquisition operation is performed from an external source using the in-vehicle device, and particularly suitable for reducing an input operation by a user. ing.

S information providing system 10 in-vehicle device 30 voice recognition server 40 information analysis server 15 control unit 15a voice acquisition unit 15b text acquisition unit 15c information processing unit 15d user identification unit 42 storage unit 42a operation history information 42b preference analysis dictionary information 42c user preference information 42d Collected information 43 Control unit 43a Operation history acquisition unit 43b Preference determination unit 43c Information collection unit 43d Information transmission unit

Claims (9)

An information providing system for providing information to users of a plurality of information search devices,
An operation history acquisition unit that acquires an operation history for each user of the information search device;
A preference determination unit that determines one or more preferences from a plurality of preferences for each user based on the history of operations acquired by the operation history acquisition unit;
For each Ki嗜 good before it is determined by said preference determination unit among the plurality of preference, an information collecting unit to a corresponding external source or RaOsamu current individually information,
It obtains information corresponding to the preference of the user from the information collected by the information collection unit for each of the user, and a data transmitting unit for transmitting the acquired information to the corresponding front Kijo report retrieval device An information providing system characterized by that. The information collecting unit
Repeatedly collecting information from the external source,
The information transmitting unit
2. The information according to claim 1, wherein, when the information collected by the information collection unit is new information that has not been collected in the past, the new information is transmitted to the information search device of the user. Offer system. The information transmitting unit
Information providing system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that if the information to be transmitted is a plurality, and transmits the previous list Kijo report to the information retrieval device. The information transmitting unit
Claims collection of the information by the information collection unit for all the determined preferences as preference of the user among the previous SL plurality of preferences when finished, and transmits the information to the information retrieval device Item 4. The information providing system according to any one of Items 1 to 3 . The information search device includes:
The information according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising: a transmission unit that collectively transmits operation histories of the plurality of users when there are a plurality of users performing the operation. Offer system. The operation history acquisition unit acquires an operation history for an external source and a source of the information search device.
The information provision system according to any one of claims 1 to 5. The information retrieval device is an in-vehicle device,
The external source is a server connected to the Internet;
The source of the information search device is a car navigation function and / or a car audio function that is provided in the in-vehicle device and receives an operation for the user.
The information providing system according to claim 6. A plurality of information retrieval devices for providing information acquired from an external source to a user;
An operation history acquisition unit that acquires an operation history for each user of the information search device;
A preference determination unit that determines one or more preferences from a plurality of preferences for each user based on the history of operations acquired by the operation history acquisition unit;
For each Ki嗜 good before it is determined by said preference determination unit among the plurality of preference, an information collecting unit to a corresponding external source or RaOsamu current individually information,
An information providing unit that obtains, for each user, information corresponding to the user's preference from the information collected by the information collecting unit, and presents the acquired information to the corresponding user. Information retrieval device. A plurality of in- vehicle devices that provide users with information acquired from external sources,
An operation history acquisition unit for acquiring an operation history for each user of the in-vehicle device;
A preference determination unit that determines one or more preferences from a plurality of preferences for each user based on the history of operations acquired by the operation history acquisition unit;
For each Ki嗜 good before it is determined by said preference determination unit among the plurality of preference, an information collecting unit to a corresponding external source or RaOsamu current individually information,
An information providing unit that obtains, for each user, information corresponding to the user's preference from the information collected by the information collecting unit, and presents the acquired information to the corresponding user. In-vehicle device.

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