JP5991083B2 - Application program usage evaluation system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a system for evaluating the usage record of an application program, and more particularly to a technique for collecting and evaluating the usage record information of application programs installed in individual information processing apparatuses.

  General-purpose information processing apparatuses are used by various users for various purposes. For this reason, many information processing apparatuses adopt a form in which a desired application program can be appropriately installed for each user as needed, and the entire apparatus is managed by an OS program. For example, electronic devices such as general-purpose personal computers, tablet information terminal devices, and mobile phones are all representative information processing devices that take such a form.

  In particular, in recent years, the spread of smartphones has been remarkable among mobile phones, and in the future, it is expected that the spread will progress to the rate of one per person. A smartphone has a processing function similar to that of a conventional personal computer, and a user can cause a user to execute a desired application program under the control of an OS program, like a personal computer. For example, Android OS (registered trademark) provided by Google Inc. in the United States and iOS (registered trademark) provided by Apple Inc. in the United States are prevalent as typical OS programs for smartphones.

  A general-purpose information processing apparatus such as a smartphone can download and use a new application program via the Internet as necessary. For this reason, various application distribution sites are established on the net, and a large number of application programs are registered. The program creator can publish the developed application program at an arbitrary distribution site and distribute it to a large number of users, and the user can download and use a desired application program from an arbitrary distribution site. Such distribution forms of application programs are expected to become increasingly popular in the future.

  When a large number of application programs are published via the Internet, users will want to obtain evaluation and rating information about individual application programs before downloading. Application programs that are publicly available on the Internet include extremely good to inferior ones, and they are in a state of cobblestone chaos. Therefore, it is natural that the user wants to obtain some evaluation for each published application program.

  In general, as a method of providing a user with an evaluation of individual contents and programs published on a site on the Internet, a method of displaying the total number of downloads performed so far is known. For example, in Patent Document 1 below, the number of times each content has been downloaded in a content server that distributes content to users via the Internet is tabulated, ranking is performed based on the results, and ranking ranking is performed. A technique for displaying contents side by side in accordance with the above is disclosed. In fact, many sites that distribute application programs also employ a method of counting and displaying the number of downloads for each application program. The user is presented with a general index for determining that an application program with a larger number of downloads is better software.

  On the other hand, a method of collecting and presenting evaluations from users who have already downloaded is also known. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-228561 discloses a technique for rating each software by aggregating scores included in a questionnaire regarding evaluation of a plurality of software collected from users via a network. In addition, not only software, but also a site that introduces and sells various products on the network, there is a method for posting comments from users and providing them for evaluation materials for users who are considering purchasing. It has been adopted. The user can evaluate individual products with reference to the content of comments of other users.

JP 2008-83738 A JP 2002-117171 A

  As described above, evaluation and rating information for individual application programs is very important for users considering introduction of these application programs. As a method for performing such evaluation and rating, a method of counting the number of downloads and collecting evaluation results such as scores and comments from the user can be said to be a very efficient method.

  However, each of the above methods is based on the premise that the user who downloads or evaluates the application program is a good-will user, and in practice, it always performs accurate evaluation and rating. I can't. For example, there may be a case where the application program developer himself repeats meaningless downloads for the purpose of illegally increasing the evaluation of his application program. Or you might post a positive comment or give a high score for your application program. Conversely, there may be cases where a competitor's application program is posted with a negative comment or a low score. Recently, the existence of contractors who undertake such unauthorized operations has also become a problem.

  Normally, the distribution server mechanically aggregates the number of downloads and evaluation scores for each application program, and performs a process of mechanically displaying posted comments. Therefore, as mentioned above, even if there are meaningless downloads, false scoring evaluations, and false comment postings in order to intentionally manipulate the evaluation results in an unauthorized manner, it is difficult to prevent with conventional methods It is.

  As described above, when an unauthorized operation is performed on the evaluation of the application program, the user is guided by the unauthorized evaluation, and misunderstood the application program that is not good as a good program and downloads and uses it. As a result, users who use the application program are dissatisfied with the quality of the highly-reputed application program and are reluctant to purchase other application programs. Will also have distrust. On the other hand, if an unauthorized operation that lowers the evaluation is performed on a good program, the user is guided by the unauthorized evaluation and hesitates to use it even though it is excellent. Thus, the user cannot trust the index for determining whether or not each application program is good, and eventually the development of the distribution site is hindered.

  A further problem is that the above-described unauthorized operation increases the possibility of erroneously using software called so-called malware that may harm the user. If the malware producer registered on the distribution site performs an unauthorized operation that increases the evaluation of the malware, the ranking will improve, and at first glance it will look like good software. For this reason, the number of users who use malware increases, resulting in increased damage.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an evaluation system capable of performing correct evaluation on application programs without the influence of unauthorized operations.

(1) A first aspect of the present invention includes an information processing apparatus having an application program execution function, and an application evaluation server that exchanges information with the information processing apparatus via a network. In a usage record evaluation system that evaluates the use record of an application program in an information processing device,
Information processing equipment includes
A terminal-side communication unit that communicates with the application evaluation server via a network;
A file storage for storing application programs and data files;
An input / output interface for inputting instructions from the user and presenting information to the user;
Memory for deploying application programs and data files;
Information obtained as a result of executing the program expanded on the memory after executing the startup process of reading the application program to be used from the file storage unit and expanding it in the memory based on the instruction from the user A program execution unit for presenting to the user,
Collecting the usage record of the application program by the program execution unit, sending this to the application evaluation server via the terminal side communication unit and reporting it,
Provided,
Application evaluation server includes
A server-side communication unit that communicates with the information processing apparatus via a network;
A usage record storage unit that stores a usage record transmitted from the information processing apparatus;
A usage record totaling unit that totals the usage records stored in the usage record storage unit;
A usage record presenting unit that presents the totaling result by the usage record totaling unit;
Provided,
The program execution unit records log information indicating when each application program starts and ends in a memory or a file storage unit,
The usage record collection / reporting unit collects log information or information derived based on the log information as a usage record.

(2) According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the first aspect described above,
The usage record totaling unit counts the number of users for each application program based on the usage record.
The usage record presenting section presents the number of users for each application program.

(3) According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the first or second aspect described above,
Based on the usage record, the usage record totaling unit counts the number of startups for each application program,
The usage record presenting section presents the total number of users or the user average value of the number of activations or both for each application program.

(4) According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the first to third aspects described above,
The usage record totaling unit totals the cumulative usage time for each application program based on the usage record.
The usage record presenting section presents the total user total value or the user average value or both of the accumulated usage time for each application program.

(5) According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the first to fourth aspects described above,
The usage result presenting section presents the ranking of the number of users, the number of activations, or the accumulated usage time by arranging the application program names in order.

(6) According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the first to fifth aspects described above,
The usage record collection / reporting unit or the usage record totaling unit performs eligibility determination on individual use results, and the use results determined to be ineligible are excluded from the reporting target or the totaling target.

(7) According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the sixth aspect described above,
The usage record collection / reporting unit or the usage record totaling unit determines whether or not the application program related to the use record is eligible for a continuous start time from the start to the end of the application program related to the use record. When a predetermined upper limit time is exceeded, it is determined to be ineligible.

(8) In an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the sixth aspect described above,
The usage history collection / reporting unit or the usage history totaling unit determines whether or not the application program related to the usage record is used from the start to the end of the application program. In the case where it overlaps with a predetermined ineligible time zone, it is determined that the qualification is ineligible.

(9) According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the sixth aspect described above,
The ratio of the cumulative usage time of a specific application program to the total cumulative usage time obtained by summing up the cumulative usage times of all application programs used by the same information processing device by the usage history collection report section or usage history totaling section is predetermined. When the reference ratio is exceeded, or when the ratio of the number of activation times of a specific application program to the total number of activations of all application programs used in the same information processing apparatus exceeds a predetermined reference ratio, or When both of these are satisfied, it is determined that the usage record of the specific application program for the information processing apparatus is ineligible.

(10) According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the utilization history evaluation system for application programs according to the first to ninth aspects described above,
The information processing apparatus further includes a personal information storage unit that stores personal information of the user,
The usage record collection / reporting unit has a function to report personal application information to the application evaluation server in association with the usage record,
The usage record storage unit stores the usage record in association with personal information,
The usage record totaling unit counts the usage record in consideration of personal information.

(11) An eleventh aspect of the present invention is an application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the tenth aspect described above,
As personal information, use one or more information selected from the group of the user's name, address, phone number, gender, age, occupation,
The usage record totaling unit divides users into a plurality of groups based on the personal information, and totals the usage records for each group.

(12) According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the tenth or eleventh aspect described above,
If there is an approval from the user, the usage record collection and reporting section reports the usage record associated with personal information, and if there is no consent from the user, reports the usage record without associating personal information. ,
The usage result presenting section presents the aggregated results with restrictions imposed on the users who have not given consent compared to the aggregated results presented to the users who have given consent.

(13) In a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the tenth to twelfth aspects described above,
The usage record collection / reporting unit or the usage record totaling unit makes an eligibility determination based on the associated personal information for each usage record, and excludes the use result determined to be ineligible from the report target or the total target. It is what I did.

(14) According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the thirteenth aspect described above,
Use personal information that includes the user's age,
The usage history collection / reporting unit or the usage history totaling unit determines whether or not the usage time period from the start to the end of the application program related to the usage history is that the specific user In the case where it overlaps with a predetermined ineligible time zone set in advance for the age of, it is determined to be ineligible.

(15) According to a fifteenth aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the first to ninth aspects described above,
The information processing apparatus further includes a personal information storage unit that stores personal information of the user,
The usage record collection and reporting unit generates anonymous information by applying a one-way function to data indicating personal information, and reports the application record to the application evaluation server in association with the anonymous information.
The usage record storage unit stores the usage record in association with anonymous information,
The usage record totaling unit counts the usage record in consideration of anonymous information.

(16) According to a sixteenth aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the first to fifteenth aspects described above,
The information processing apparatus further includes a position information recognition unit that recognizes current position information,
The usage record collection / reporting unit has a function of transmitting, in addition to the usage record, location information at each time point or information derived based on this location information to the application evaluation server,
The usage record storage unit stores the transmitted usage record and location information or information derived based on this location information,
The usage record totaling unit counts the usage record in consideration of position information or information derived based on the position information.

(17) According to a seventeenth aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the sixteenth aspect described above,
The usage results totaling section sets multiple districts on the map, identifies the usage districts of individual application programs based on the usage results and location information or information derived based on this location information, and uses the results. The data is tabulated by district.

(18) According to an eighteenth aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the sixteenth aspect described above,
The usage record totaling unit counts the usage records for each movement mode in consideration of the movement mode of the user estimated based on the time change of the position information.

(19) According to a nineteenth aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the sixteenth to eighteenth aspects described above,
The usage record collection / reporting department or the usage record totaling section performed eligibility determination based on location information for each usage record, and excluded the use record that was determined to be ineligible from the reporting target or totaling target. Is.

(20) According to a twentieth aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the nineteenth aspect described above,
The usage record collection / reporting department or usage record totaling department sets a place that is inappropriate for using the application program as an ineligible place in advance, and the location information indicates an ineligible place. This determination is made so that

(21) According to a twenty-first aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the nineteenth aspect described above,
The usage record collection / reporting unit or the usage record totaling unit considers the inappropriate location to be inappropriate for using the application program during a specified time period. A combination of qualified places is set, and a use result indicating use in an unqualified place during an unqualified time zone is determined to be unqualified.

(22) According to a twenty-second aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the nineteenth aspect described above,
If the usage record totaling unit has more than a certain number of usage records that indicate the use of the same application program at a location close to the same time zone, these usage records are disqualified. The determination is made.

(23) According to a twenty-third aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the first to fifteenth aspects described above,
The information processing apparatus further includes an acceleration sensor that detects acceleration acting on the apparatus housing,
The usage record collection and reporting unit has a function of transmitting information obtained based on acceleration detection at each time point by the acceleration sensor to the application evaluation server in addition to the usage record,
The usage record storage unit stores the transmitted usage record and information obtained based on the acceleration detection,
The usage record totaling unit counts the usage record in consideration of information obtained based on the acceleration detection.

(24) According to a twenty-fourth aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the twenty-third aspect described above,
The usage record totaling unit counts the usage records for each movement mode in consideration of the movement mode of the user estimated based on the amplitude value of the acceleration detection value or the change period thereof.

(25) According to a twenty-fifth aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the eighteenth or twenty-fourth aspect described above,
The usage record totaling unit estimates whether the user's movement mode is one of three modes of a stop state, a walking movement state, or a vehicle movement state, and totals the usage records for each of the three modes.

(26) According to a twenty-sixth aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the first to twenty-fifth aspects described above,
An application providing server that provides an application program to the information processing apparatus via a network;
An installation process in which the information processing apparatus downloads an application program desired by the user from the application providing server based on an instruction from the user and introduces the application program into the file storage unit, and an uninstall process in which the stored application program is deleted from the file storage unit And an application introduction processing unit having a function of executing the above.

(27) According to a twenty-seventh aspect of the present invention, in the utilization history evaluation system for an application program according to the twenty-sixth aspect described above,
The application installation processing unit stores installation information including installation and uninstallation times of individual application programs in the file storage unit.
The usage record collection and reporting unit sends the introduction information to the application evaluation server via the terminal side communication unit and reports it,
The usage record storage unit stores the introduction information along with the usage record,
The usage record totaling unit has a function to totalize introduction information,
The usage record presenting unit has a function of presenting the total result of the introduction information.

(28) According to a twenty-eighth aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the twenty-seventh aspect described above,
Based on the introduction information, the usage record totaling unit totals the installation duration from installation to uninstallation for each application program.
The usage record presenting unit presents the total user total value or the user average value or both of the installation continuation time for each application program.

(29) According to a twenty-ninth aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the twenty-sixth to twenty-eighth aspects described above,
The utilization result presenting unit in the application evaluation server has a function of transmitting the aggregation result to be presented to the application providing server,
The application providing server presents the total result together with the list of application programs to be downloaded to the application introduction processing unit.

(30) According to a thirty aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the first to twenty-ninth aspects described above,
The information processing apparatus further includes a comment posting unit that accepts a user's comment posting on the application program and transmits the comment to the application evaluation server via the terminal-side communication unit.
Application evaluation server
A comment storage unit for storing comments transmitted from the information processing device;
A comment presentation unit for presenting comments stored in the comment storage unit;
Is further provided.

(31) According to a thirty-first aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the thirtieth aspect described above,
The comment posting section refers to the usage records collected by the usage record collection and reporting section for the application program to be posted, and accepts posting comments only when the referenced usage records meet the specified posting conditions. It is.

(32) According to a thirty-second aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the thirty-first aspect described above,
When the comment posting unit has a cumulative usage time of the application program to be posted is a predetermined reference time or more, or when the number of activations of the application program to be posted is a predetermined reference number or more, or both Is satisfied, it is determined that the posting condition for the posting target is satisfied.

(33) According to a thirty-third aspect of the present invention, in the utilization history evaluation system for an application program according to the thirty-first aspect described above,
Information indicating the genre is associated with each application program,
The comment posting part belongs to the same genre as the application program to be posted, or the total usage time of application programs that belong to the same genre as the application program to be posted is equal to or greater than the predetermined reference time When the total number of application programs to be started is equal to or greater than a predetermined reference number, or when both are satisfied, it is determined that the posting condition for the posting target is satisfied. .

(34) According to a thirty-fourth aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the thirtieth to thirty-third aspects described above,
The comment posting unit accepts the user's evaluation score about the application program as a comment, sends it to the application evaluation server via the terminal side communication unit, and posts it,
The comment presenting section presents an average value of evaluation points posted by a plurality of users as a comment.

(35) According to a thirty-fifth aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the thirtieth aspect described above,
Based on the usage results collected by the usage history collection and reporting unit, the comment posting unit adds weight information to the posted comments and sends them,
The comment storage unit stores comments with weight information added,
The comment presenting section presents individual comments in a manner corresponding to the weight information.

(36) According to a thirty-sixth aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the thirty-fifth aspect,
The comment posting unit adds heavier weight information as the accumulated use time of the application program to be posted is longer or the number of activations is larger.

(37) According to a thirty-seventh aspect of the present invention, in the utilization history evaluation system for an application program according to the thirty-fifth aspect,
Information indicating the genre is associated with each application program,
The comment posting part added heavier weight information as the total accumulated use time of application programs belonging to the same genre as the application program to be posted increases or as the total number of activations increases. Is.

(38) According to a thirty-eighth aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the thirty-seventh aspect described above,
If the comment posting section has a function to store past posting results, and there is a past posting result for an application program that belongs to the same genre as the application program to be newly posted, the new posting In this case, heavier weight information is added to the comment.

(39) A thirty-ninth aspect of the present invention is the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the thirty-fifth to thirty-eighth aspects described above.
The process of adding weight information to the comment is performed by the comment storage unit instead of the comment posting unit.

(40) In a 40th aspect of the present invention, in the utilization performance evaluation system for an application program according to the above 35th to 39th aspects,
The comment presenting unit presents a plurality of comments in the order corresponding to the weight information.

(41) In a forty-first aspect of the present invention, in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the thirty-fifth to forty aspects described above,
The comment presenting unit displays the characters constituting each comment by changing the font, size, color, or other display mode according to the weight information.

(42) In a forty-second aspect of the present invention, in the utilization history evaluation system for an application program according to the thirtieth aspect described above,
An application providing server that provides an application program to the information processing apparatus via a network is provided,
The information processing apparatus includes an application introduction processing unit having a function of executing an installation process of downloading an application program desired by the user from the application providing server and introducing the application program into the file storage unit based on an instruction from the user,
The comment presentation unit in the application evaluation server has a function of transmitting a comment to be presented to the application providing server,
The application providing server presents a comment to the application introduction processing unit together with a list of application programs to be downloaded.

(43) A forty-third aspect of the present invention is the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the first to forty-second aspects described above,
The usage record collection / reporting unit periodically reports the usage record at a predetermined timing set in advance.

(44) The forty-fourth aspect of the present invention is the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the first to forty-third aspects described above,
The information processing device operates based on the power supplied from the built-in rechargeable battery,
The usage record collection / reporting unit reports the usage record only during a period when the charging capacity of the rechargeable battery is equal to or higher than a predetermined level or during a period when the charging process for the rechargeable battery is performed.

(45) A forty-fifth aspect of the present invention is an application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the first to forty-fourth aspects described above,
The usage results collection and reporting section refers to the target screening list that lists the application programs that are subject to the usage results or are not subject to reporting. The report is to be made.

(46) The forty-sixth aspect of the present invention is the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the first to forty-fifth aspects described above,
The file storage unit in the information processing apparatus stores an application program having a Web browser function,
The application evaluation server has a function as a Web server, and the usage result presenting unit or the comment presenting unit presents the aggregation result or the comment on the Web page,
The information processing apparatus presents a total result or a comment to the user by an application program having a Web browser function.

  (47) A forty-seventh aspect of the present invention is an information processing apparatus that can be used in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the first to the forty-sixth aspects described above.

  (48) According to a 48th aspect of the present invention, an information processing apparatus that can be used in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the first to 46th aspects described above is configured by incorporating a program into a computer. is there.

  (49) In a forty-ninth aspect of the present invention, an application evaluation server that can be used in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the first to the forty-sixth aspects is configured.

  (50) According to a 50th aspect of the present invention, an application evaluation server that can be used in the application program utilization performance evaluation system according to the first to 46th aspects described above is configured by incorporating a program into a computer. is there.

(51) According to a 51st aspect of the present invention, in the information processing apparatus constituting the use performance evaluation system for the application program according to the above 1st to 46th aspects,
A terminal side communication unit, a file storage unit, a memory, a program execution unit, an input / output interface, and if necessary, an application introduction processing unit is configured by a computer and an OS program incorporated in the computer,
The usage record collection and reporting section, and if necessary, the comment posting section, is composed of a computer, a specific application program incorporated in the computer, and a usage data file used by the specific application program Is.

  (52) According to a 52nd aspect of the present invention, the application program according to the 51st aspect described above can be distributed alone.

  According to the utilization history evaluation system for application programs according to the present invention, the actual utilization records are collected from a large number of information processing apparatuses having a function of executing the application program, and the application programs are collected by collecting the actual utilization records. It can be evaluated as a usage record. Moreover, since the collected usage results are information derived based on log information indicating the start and end times of individual application programs, reliability based on the fact that the user actually started and used the application program Therefore, more accurate evaluation can be performed as compared with a conventional system that simply counts the number of downloads. As described above, according to the evaluation system of the present invention, it is possible to correctly evaluate an application program without the influence of unauthorized operation.

  For example, based on the log information, the number of users, the number of activations, the accumulated usage time, etc. for each application program can be aggregated as objective data. Since these aggregated data is objective data collected from information processing apparatuses used by individual users, it can be used as a highly reliable evaluation index.

  Further, in the embodiment in which the evaluation using the personal information is performed together with the usage record, the aggregation considering the personal information such as age, sex, occupation, etc. is possible, so that a finer evaluation can be performed. Furthermore, in the embodiment in which the location information is used together with the usage record, the application program can be aggregated in consideration of the location information used, so that it is possible to perform evaluation for each district. In addition, in the embodiment in which the evaluation using the acceleration information is performed, it is possible to perform the evaluation according to the movement mode such as whether or not the user has used the information during the movement.

  On the other hand, in the embodiment in which the qualification of the usage record is determined based on the log information and the position information, it is possible to determine the possibility that the unauthorized operation has been performed for each usage record, and thus there is a possibility of the unauthorized operation. By excluding the usage results from the aggregation target, it is possible to perform a correct evaluation that eliminates the influence of unauthorized operations.

  Also, in the embodiment for posting comments, it is possible to perform posting restrictions based on usage records and weighting based on usage records, so it is possible to collect only highly reliable comments or trust each comment. It is possible to display in a mode according to sex.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the utilization performance evaluation system which concerns on basic embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the log information LOG recorded in the memory 360 in the system shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the use track record (log information) stored in the use track record storage part 210 in the system shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the total result of the utilization performance by the utilization performance totaling part 220 in the system shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a presentation of the utilization track record by the utilization track record presentation part 230 in the system shown in FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the utilization performance evaluation system which concerns on embodiment which performs evaluation using the personal information of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the personal information recorded in the personal information storage part 380 in the system shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the total result of the usage record which considered the personal information by the usage record totaling part 220 in the system shown in FIG. In the system shown in FIG. 6, it is a figure which shows an example of the algorithm which produces anonymous information based on personal information. It is a figure which shows an example of the total result of the usage record which considered the anonymous information by the usage record total part 220 in the system shown in FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the utilization performance evaluation system which concerns on embodiment which performs evaluation using the positional information of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the positional information recognized by the positional information recognition part 385 in the system shown in FIG. It is a top view which shows an example of the area set in the system shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the evaluation method (evaluation according to area) using the positional information in the system shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the total result (total result according to district) of the utilization track record which considered the positional information by the utilization track record part 220 in the system shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of presentation using the pie chart of the total result shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the evaluation method (evaluation according to a movement mode) using the positional information in the system shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the utilization result totaling result (counting result according to a movement mode) which considered the positional information by the utilization performance totaling part 220 in the system shown in FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the utilization performance evaluation system which concerns on embodiment which performs evaluation using the acceleration information of this invention. It is a graph which shows an example of the measured value of the acceleration (alpha) measured by the acceleration sensor 387 in the system shown in FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the utilization performance evaluation system which concerns on embodiment with the comment contribution of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of a screen display at the time of comment posting operation in the system shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a screen display when contribution of a comment is refused in the system shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the example which matches a genre with an application program. It is a figure which shows the table for adding weight information based on accumulation use time. It is a block diagram which shows the state which added weight information to each comment, respectively. It is a figure which shows the example of a presentation of the comment by the comment presentation part 260 in the system shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the specific personal information utilized for the utilization performance evaluation system which concerns on this invention, and a utilization performance. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the report process of the utilization track record in the utilization track record evaluation system which concerns on this invention.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described based on the illustrated embodiments.

<<< §1. Basic embodiment of the present invention >>
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a utilization performance evaluation system according to a basic embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, this evaluation system includes an application providing server 100, an application evaluation server 200, and an information processing apparatus 300 that are accessible to each other via a network N. The network N may be a local network such as a LAN, but in practice, it is preferable to use the Internet. Therefore, in the following description, an example using the Internet as the network N will be described.

  The information processing device 300 is a device having a function of executing an installed application program. Specifically, the information processing device 300 is used by various electronic devices such as a personal computer, a tablet information terminal device, and various mobile phones including a smartphone. Can be configured. However, in the following description, an example in which the present invention is applied to a smartphone will be described for convenience.

  The application providing server 100 is a component that provides an application program to the information processing apparatus 300 via the network N. In the figure, for convenience of explanation, an example in which six application programs AP1 to AP6 are prepared in the application providing server 100 is shown (of course, a larger number of application programs are practically prepared). The information processing apparatus 300 can download a desired application program from the application providing server 100 via the network N, install it, and use it. Since the application providing server 100 is a known device that has already been used, a detailed description of its configuration is omitted here.

  On the other hand, the application evaluation server 200 has a function of exchanging information with the information processing apparatus 300 via the network N, a function of totaling the usage results reported from the information processing apparatus 300 and presenting the result. have. The usage record of the application program in the information processing apparatus 300 is evaluated by the application evaluation server 200 and presented.

  For convenience of explanation, FIG. 1 shows a state in which only one information processing device 300 is connected to the network N, but in reality, the information processing device 300 is owned by an individual user. A plurality of information processing apparatuses 300 corresponding to the number of users are used. Each information processing apparatus 300 includes a terminal-side communication unit 310, an application introduction processing unit 320, a usage record collection reporting unit 330, a file storage unit 340, a program execution unit 350, a memory 360, and an input / output interface 370, as illustrated. doing.

  The terminal-side communication unit 310 is a component that performs a function of communicating with the application providing server 100 and the application evaluation server 200 via the network N. Communication between the servers 100 and 200 and the information processing apparatus 300 via the network N is performed by the terminal-side communication unit 310. Specifically, the terminal-side communication unit 310 may be a device connected to the Internet via a wired LAN or a wireless LAN, and in the case of a smartphone or the like, via a mobile phone base station. It may be a device connected to the Internet.

  The application introduction processing unit 320 downloads an application program desired by the user from the application providing server 100 based on an instruction from the user and introduces the application program into the file storage unit 340, and the stored application program from the file storage unit 340. It performs the function of executing an uninstall process to be erased. Usually, such a function is provided by an OS program of the information processing apparatus 300 or a Web browser application program. The application introduction processing unit 320 also executes a process of downloading a data file used by the application program and introducing it to the file storage unit 340 as necessary.

  The file storage unit 340 is a component that performs a function of storing application programs and data files. The figure shows a state in which four sets of application programs AP1, AP3, AP4, AP6 and three sets of data files D1, D2, D3 are stored. In the case of the illustrated example, each of the application programs AP1, AP3, AP4, and AP6 is introduced by downloading from the application providing server 100 by the installation process by the application introduction processing unit 320. On the other hand, each data file D1, D2, D3 may be created and stored by the introduced application program, or may be introduced and stored together by the application introduction processing unit 320 when the application program is introduced. There is also.

  In the case of a general smartphone, the file storage unit 340 can be configured by a built-in nonvolatile memory or a detachable nonvolatile memory that is attached. Of course, the file storage unit 340 may be configured by a hard disk device, an optical recording device, or the like, regardless of whether it is built-in or detachable. Also, an external storage location accessible via the network N can be used as the file storage unit 340. In short, the file storage unit 340 may be configured by any hardware as long as it is a component having a function of storing a program and a data file so that they can be read out when necessary. It doesn't matter.

  On the other hand, the memory 360 is a component for developing an application program to be executed and a data file used by the program. The memory 360 functions in the same way as the file storage unit 340 in terms of components having functions for storing programs and data, but the file storage unit 340 reads programs and data files when necessary. In contrast to serving as a storage location for storage so that data can be stored, the memory 360 plays a role of developing and holding programs and data files to be executed in order to place them in the execution environment.

  Because of such a difference in roles, the file storage unit 340 is required to be a storage device that can provide a large-capacity storage location at a low cost, whereas the memory 360 has high-speed access from the CPU. A storage device with possible performance is required. For this reason, a volatile memory such as a RAM is usually used as the memory 360 (of course, a non-volatile memory may be used as the memory 360 as long as the function as an information processing device is not impaired).

  Based on an instruction from the user, the program execution unit 350 reads the application program to be used from the file storage unit 340 and executes it in the memory 360, and then executes the program expanded on the memory 360. And it fulfills the function of presenting information obtained as an execution result to the user. The figure shows a state in which the application program AP3 and the data file D1 used by the application program AP3 are read from the file storage unit 340 and expanded on the memory 360. The activation instruction for the application program to be used is not necessarily limited to the direct activation instruction based on the direct instruction operation from the user who clicks or taps the icon of the application. For example, in the case of an application having a function of presenting an alarm at a specific time, if the user sets the time in advance, the application automatically starts at the set time without a direct instruction operation by the user. become. Thus, the instructions from the user given to the program execution unit 350 include not only direct instructions based on real-time instruction operations but also indirect instructions by other methods.

  The input / output interface 370 is a component having a function of inputting an instruction from the user and presenting information to the user. The user can give various instructions to the input / output interface 370. Specifically, an installation instruction for introducing a new application program or an uninstallation instruction for deleting the introduced application program is given to the application introduction processing unit 320, or a desired instruction is given to the program execution unit 350. A start instruction and an end instruction can be given to the application program, and various instructions related to program execution can be given. On the other hand, the application introduction processing unit 320 and the program execution unit 350 present necessary information related to these instructions to the user via the input / output interface 370.

  In the case of a general smartphone, the input / output interface 370 can be configured by a display device with a touch panel. In this case, an instruction from the user is input by an operation of bringing a finger or the like into contact with a predetermined location on the display screen, and information is presented to the user by performing a predetermined image display on the display screen. . Of course, an instruction from the user is performed based on sound (for example, the user's voice may be recognized and processed as an instruction input), or information is presented to the user by sound (for example, synthesis) Presentation of voice, notification by beep sound, etc.). Further, when a personal computer or the like is used as the information processing apparatus, the input / output interface 370 can also be configured by a keyboard or a mouse.

  Note that the application programs AP1, AP3, AP4, AP6 and the data files D1, D2, D3 stored in the file storage unit 340 do not necessarily correspond one-to-one. Some application programs do not require a data file at all, while others use a plurality of data files selectively or simultaneously. The same data file may be shared by a plurality of application programs. Which data file each application program uses at the time of execution is determined based on the program settings and user instructions, and the program execution unit 350 stores the data file necessary for executing the activated application program as a file. The data is appropriately read from the unit 340 and expanded on the memory 360.

  On the other hand, the usage record collection reporting unit 330 is a component that performs an important function in the present invention, collects the usage record of the application program by the program execution unit 350, and collects this using the application evaluation server via the terminal side communication unit 310. It plays the role of sending to 200 and reporting. For this purpose, the program execution unit 350 performs an operation of recording log information indicating the start time and end time of each application program in the memory 360. In the figure, a LOG file shown in the memory 360 is a log information file recorded by the program execution unit 350.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of log information LOG recorded in the memory 360. In this example, three pieces of information “application / operation / date / time” are recorded as a set of logs, and the fact that “when and which application program started or ended” is recorded. Specifically, in the case of the illustrated example, the application program AP3 is started at 16:51 on July 21, 2012, AP1 is subsequently started at 16:58, and AP1 ends at 17:14. The fact that AP6 was activated at 17:33 and AP3 was terminated at 17:53 is recorded. From this log information LOG, the application programs AP1, AP3, AP6 are each started once, the time that AP3 is in the activated state is 62 minutes, and the time that AP1 is in the activated state is 16 minutes It is also possible to obtain additional information such as.

  Here, for convenience of explanation, the date and time information is shown in units of minutes, but in practice, it is preferable to record up to seconds. The year and month information may be omitted if there is no confusion about the year and month. Of course, the date / time information does not necessarily have to be in the format of year / month / day / hour / minute / second. For example, a method of indicating a cumulative value of seconds based on a predetermined time point may be adopted.

  As described above, the program execution unit 350 executes processing for starting and ending an application program desired by the user based on the user's direct or indirect instruction given through the input / output interface 370. To do. That is, at startup, a necessary work area is allocated on the memory 360, and an application program file stored in the file storage unit 340 (if necessary, a data file used by the application) is assigned to the work. Prepare for execution by deploying to the region. At the end, the work area allocated on the memory 360 is released (so that it can be allocated as a work area of another application).

  The program execution unit 350 updates the contents of the log information LOG every time such start processing and end processing are performed, and for example, at the time of starting and ending individual application programs in the format illustrated in FIG. The process of recording is performed. Note that when a volatile memory is used as the memory 360, the recorded content of the memory is lost when the power supply is stopped by turning off the power of the information processing apparatus 300. Therefore, in practice, the log information LOG recorded in the memory 360 is saved as a log information file in the file storage unit 340 as necessary, and is saved when the log information needs to be updated. It is preferable to provide the program execution unit 350 with a function of expanding the log information file into the memory 360 again.

  The usage record collection / reporting unit 330 reads the log information LOG stored in the memory 360 or the file storage unit 340 in this manner at a predetermined timing (for example, every week), and uses this as the usage record to the application evaluation server 200. It will be sent to and reported. At that time, in order not to duplicate the use results that have been reported in the past, in the use result collection report unit 330, it is recorded to which log it has been sent, and at the next transmission, unsent It is preferable to send only logs.

  Note that general information processing apparatuses such as a personal computer, a tablet information terminal apparatus, and a smartphone usually operate under the control of a predetermined OS program. Therefore, in practice, the information processing apparatus 300 shown in FIG. 1 also stores an OS program, data files used by the OS program, and the like, and the memory 360 uses these OS programs and their usage data. However, for the sake of convenience, a description of these OS programs is omitted here.

  Actually, among the components of the information processing apparatus 300 shown in FIG. 1, the functions of the terminal-side communication unit 310, the application introduction processing unit 320, the file storage unit 340, the program execution unit 350, the memory 360, and the input / output interface 370 Is realized by a combination of an OS program and hardware such as a CPU. For example, when a smartphone adopting an Android OS (registered trademark) is used as the information processing apparatus 300, processing such as installation and uninstallation of an application program, start and termination of a program, recording of log information LOG, and the like depending on the function of the OS program Is executed. Therefore, in this case, the information processing apparatus 300 is configured by newly incorporating the function as the usage record collection report unit 330 into the OS program or installing a dedicated application program that performs the function as the use record collection report unit 330. can do. After all, the information processing apparatus 300 according to the present invention can be configured by incorporating a dedicated program into a computer.

  Next, the configuration of the application evaluation server 200 will be described. As illustrated, the application evaluation server 200 includes a usage record storage unit 210, a usage record totaling unit 220, a usage record presentation unit 230, and a server-side communication unit 240. The application evaluation server 200 can also be configured by actually incorporating a dedicated program into a computer that functions as a server.

  The server-side communication unit 240 has a function of communicating with the information processing apparatus 300 via the network N, receives a usage record transmitted from the information processing apparatus 300, and sends information to the information processing apparatus 300. It plays a role of sending the total results of usage results. Further, it is possible to communicate with the application providing server 100 as necessary.

  The usage record storage unit 210 is a component that stores the usage record transmitted from the information processing apparatus 300. As described above, only one information processing apparatus 300 is shown in FIG. 1, but actually, the application evaluation server 200 has a usage record from each of a large number of information processing apparatuses 300 possessed by individual users. Will be sent. The usage record storage unit 210 stores the usage records of a large number of users thus transmitted.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the usage record (log information) stored in the usage record storage unit 210. This example shows a state in which the usage results reported from the user A, the second, and the second are stored. That is, the illustrated log information LOG (A, 1), LOG (A, 2), and LOG (A, 3) are usage records transmitted from the information processing apparatus 300 used by the user A, Information LOG (B, 1) and LOG (B, 2) are usage records transmitted from the information processing apparatus 300 used by the user B, and log information LOG (丙, 1), LOG (丙, 2). 2) is a usage record transmitted from the information processing apparatus 300 used by the user.

  The contents of the individual log information LOG are as illustrated in FIG. The usage record collection / reporting unit 330 reports the usage record periodically, for example, once a week. Therefore, the log information LOG (A, 1), LOG (A, 2), and LOG (A, 3) shown in the figure are used in each usage history periodically transmitted from the information processing apparatus 300 used by the user A. It turns out that.

  In the case of the embodiment shown here, each log information is stored in the usage record storage unit 210 in such a manner that it can be identified from which information processing device (which user) it is transmitted. Therefore, for example, log information LOG (A, 1), LOG (A, 2), LOG (A, 3) reported from the user A is extracted from the usage record storage unit 210 and arranged in time series. , It becomes possible to analyze the usage record related to the user A in time series.

  The usage record totaling unit 220 is a component that performs a process of totaling the usage records stored in the usage record storage unit 210, and the usage record presenting unit 230 is a process that presents the calculation results by the use record totaling unit 220. It is the component which performs. In the case of the embodiment shown here, the usage record stored in the usage record storage unit 210 is a collection of log information LOG as shown in FIG. 2, so the usage record totaling unit 220 is reported by many users. Based on the log information LOG that has been received, the usage results can be aggregated in various forms.

  For example, FIG. 4 shows an example of a total result obtained by totaling each application program from the viewpoint of the number of users, the number of times of activation, and the accumulated usage time (a cumulative value of the usage time from start to end, unit: hour). FIG. If the log information LOG as shown in FIG. 2 is transmitted together with the information for specifying the user and stored in the usage record storage unit 210 in the form as shown in FIG. 3, these are aggregated and shown in FIG. It can be easily understood that such a total result can be obtained.

  For example, by counting the number of users who have reported the log information LOG including the log related to the application program AP1, the number of users for AP1 can be obtained. Further, if the total number of logs indicating activation for the application program AP1 is counted, the total value of the activation times of AP1 can be obtained, and if this is divided by the number of users, the average value of activation times is obtained. Can do. On the other hand, if the log information LOG of the same user is analyzed, the usage time from the start to the end of the specific application program (regardless of whether or not the user actually uses the application program, The time that was in the startup state) can be calculated, so if these usage times are accumulated for all users, the total usage time for all users can be obtained and divided by the number of users. Then, the user average value of the accumulated usage time can be obtained.

  The utilization result presenting unit 230 has a function of presenting a total result as shown in FIG. The number of users who have received such aggregate results is how many users are using each application program (information on the number of users), how often they are activated (number of activations), and which The fact that it has been used for a certain amount of time (cumulative usage time) can be recognized. In other words, this system fulfills the function of evaluating and presenting the usage record of each application program.

  The tabulation results shown in FIG. 4 do not indicate the mere number of downloads for each application program, but indicate the results of actual activation and use of application programs by individual users in the individual information processing apparatuses 300. Therefore, it shows a correct evaluation that eliminates the effects of unauthorized operations that repeat meaningless downloads. For example, the value of the number of users is not simply a count of the number of downloads from the application providing server 100, but is installed in the information processing apparatus 300 owned by each user and activated at least once as log information LOG. When recorded, the value is obtained by counting the number of the information processing apparatuses 300. For this reason, it is not possible to increase the number of users simply by performing an illegal operation that repeats meaningless downloads.

  In addition, since the tabulation result shown in FIG. 4 shows quantitative evaluation such as the number of activations and the accumulated usage time, the user can obtain more detailed information. For example, when comparing the applications AP4 and AP5, the number of users is larger in the former, but the latter is overwhelmingly larger in the latter in terms of the number of activations and cumulative usage time. From such information, the application AP4 is downloaded and installed by a relatively large number of users, but most users stop using the application AP2 just by starting it a few times, and the accumulated usage time of each user is only a few minutes. You can grasp the fact that there is no. On the other hand, although there are few users who downloaded and installed the application AP5, most users have been activated and continued to use several tens of times, and the accumulated usage time of each user is several tens of hours. You can grasp the fact that it extends. It goes without saying that such an evaluation result indicates that AP5 is better software than application AP4. The conventional method of simply counting the number of downloads cannot present such an accurate evaluation result.

  FIG. 4 shows an example in which the number of users, the number of activations, and the accumulated usage time are tabulated and presented for each application program. Of course, all of the tabulation results are presented when implementing the present invention. There is no need to select and present what is needed.

  For example, the usage record totaling unit 220 counts only the number of users for each application program based on the usage records stored in the usage record storage unit 210, and the usage record presentation unit 230 You may make it show the number of users. Further, the usage record totaling unit 220 counts only the number of activations for each application program based on the usage record stored in the usage record storage unit 210, and the usage record presenting unit 230 determines the number of activations for each application program. You may make it show the frequency | count of starting. Alternatively, the usage record totaling unit 220 counts only the accumulated usage time for each application program based on the usage record stored in the usage record storage unit 210, and the usage record presenting unit 230 for each application program, The accumulated usage time may be presented.

  Of course, the total number of all users can be adopted as the number of activations and the accumulated usage time, or the user average value obtained by dividing this by the number of users can be adopted, or both of them can be presented. . The totaling results shown in FIG. 4 are the totals of the number of users, the number of activations, and the cumulative usage time. In addition, the total number of all users and the average user value are totaled as the number of startups and the cumulative usage time. It is a thing.

  In addition, the usage record presenting unit 230 does not necessarily have to present the tabulated usage record in the form of a numerical value. For example, it can be processed into a bar graph, a pie chart, or the like. Further, the usage record presenting unit 230 may present the ranking of the number of users, the number of activations, or the cumulative usage time by arranging the application program names in the order of size.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example in which the usage record presenting unit 230 presents the ranking of each application program based on the aggregation result illustrated in FIG. 4. In this example, application names are shown in order of size instead of numerical values for the number of users, the number of activations, and the accumulated usage time. Although it is not possible to grasp specific numerical values for individual items, for example, the number of users is AP1 first, and the average number of activations per user and the cumulative usage time is AP5 first. Information that there is. Of course, in the presentation example shown in FIG. 5, it is also possible to adopt a presentation method in which each numerical value shown in FIG. 4 is written alongside the application name.

  In short, in the usage record evaluation system according to the present invention, the usage record totaling unit 220 tabulates the usage record stored in the usage record storage unit 210 in some form, and the usage record presenting unit 230 uses this usage record totaling unit. As long as the result of aggregation by 220 can be presented in some form, any specific aggregation format or specific presentation format may be used.

  Various methods can also be adopted as a specific method for the usage result presenting unit 230 to present the total result. For example, if the application evaluation server 200 is provided with a function as a Web server, the usage record presenting unit 230 can present the aggregate results shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 on the Web page. In this case, the user can browse the web page by the information processing apparatus 300 having the web browser function. In other words, if an application program having a Web browser function is stored in the file storage unit 340 in the information processing apparatus 300, the application program is executed by the program execution unit 350, so that the totals published as Web pages are collected. You can view the results.

  Alternatively, if the usage result presenting unit 230 in the application evaluation server 200 has a function of transmitting the aggregation result to be presented to the application providing server 100, the application providing server 100 can have the application introduction processing unit 320. On the other hand, together with the list of application programs to be downloaded, the total result can be presented. In FIG. 1, an arrow from the usage record presenting unit 230 to the application providing server 100 indicates a transmission path of the total result. Of course, it is also possible to transmit the counting results via the Internet N. For example, the application providing server 100 can present the applications to be downloaded side by side in descending order of the number of users based on the information on the number of users transmitted as a result of aggregation, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. It is also possible to present detailed detailed results.

<<< §2. Qualification of usage results >>>
As described in §1, according to the utilization result evaluation system according to the present invention, actual utilization results are collected from a large number of information processing apparatuses having a function of executing an application program, and the totaled results are presented as evaluation information. Therefore, a more accurate evaluation can be performed as compared with a conventional system that simply counts the number of downloads. However, it is difficult to completely eliminate the influence of unauthorized operations.

  For example, if a developer of an application program provided by the application providing server 100 intends to improve the evaluation of his / her own application, the relatives and acquaintances will be mobilized to download and use the application. Even if it is not, it is possible to prompt the user to keep it activated at all times. Since an information processing apparatus compatible with so-called multitask processing can simultaneously activate a plurality of applications, a fake user who has received the above request from the application program developer Even if there is no intention to use it at all, it is possible to perform an unauthorized operation as shown in the above example only by keeping it in an activated state.

  Therefore, here, a device for reducing such unauthorized operations as much as possible will be described. The feature of the device described here is that the usage results evaluation system shown in FIG. 1 is qualified for the usage results collection unit 330 in the information processing apparatus 300 or the usage results totaling unit 220 in the application evaluation server 200 for each usage result. It is in the point to give the function which excludes it from a report object or a total object about the use results judged by sex judgment and being unqualified.

  When the usage record collection / reporting unit 330 is provided with an eligibility determination function, a process for excluding a usage record that has been determined to be ineligible from a report target is performed. In other words, the usage record transmitted from the usage record collection report unit 330 to the application evaluation server 200 is limited to data that has passed in the eligibility determination. In the embodiment described in §1, log information LOG as shown in FIG. 2 is reported as a usage record, but at that time, each log is subjected to eligibility determination, and only the passed logs are reported. Will be sent.

  On the other hand, when the usage record totaling unit 220 is provided with an eligibility determination function, the usage record totaling unit 220 performs eligibility determination on the usage record stored in the usage record storage unit 210 and is determined to be ineligible. The usage record is excluded from the aggregation target. In the embodiment described in §1, log information LOG as shown in FIG. 3 is stored in the usage record storage unit 210 as the usage record. The usage record totaling unit 220 performs eligibility determination for each of these, and totals only the logs that have passed.

  Of course, both the usage record collection reporting unit 330 and the usage record totaling unit 220 have a qualification determination function, and the qualification determination for the usage records to be tabulated is performed in two stages and screened twice. It is also possible to collect only the usage results. Hereinafter, some specific methods of this eligibility determination will be exemplified.

  In the first example of the eligibility determination method for the usage record, a continuous startup time (one usage time) from the start to the end of the application program related to the usage record is preset for the application program. This is a method of making a determination that it is ineligible when a predetermined upper limit time is exceeded. For example, the log information LOG illustrated in FIG. 2 indicates that the continuous activation time of the application AP3 is 62 minutes and the continuous activation time of the AP1 is 16 minutes. As an eligibility criterion, the upper limit value of the continuous activation time is set to “24 hours”, for example. If the continuous activation time exceeds “24 hours”, the beginning of the continuous activation time is indicated. It may be determined that the start log and the end log indicating the end are ineligible.

  As the upper limit time setting value, it is preferable to set an appropriate value for each application program in advance. Of course, the usage time of the application program is basically determined by the user himself / herself, and the program execution unit 350 activates the specified application program based on the instruction from the user, and the instruction from the user. Based on the above, the specified specific application program is terminated. However, due to the nature of each application program, a time that seems unnatural for the user to continue to use can be set as the upper limit time. For example, in the case of an application program in which a user creates a document by inputting or editing a character string, the user will rarely continue working for 24 hours. In such a case, if the upper limit time is set to “24 hours”, if the continuous activation time exceeds this, it is determined that the time is not appropriate.

  Of course, in the case of an application program whose general usage time does not exceed 60 minutes, the upper limit time may be set to “60 minutes”. In the case of the log information shown in FIG. 2, if the upper limit time for AP3 is set to “60 minutes”, it is determined that the start log for AP3 in the first line and the end log for AP3 in the fifth line are ineligible. Therefore, these logs are excluded from the reporting target or the totaling target.

  If such eligibility determination is performed, the developer of the application program and the related parties think that the evaluation of a specific application is to be improved and perform an illegal operation that always keeps the application in an activated state. In addition, it is possible to suppress the aggregation result from being affected by unauthorized operations.

  The second example of the eligibility determination method for the usage record is a predetermined ineligible time in which the usage time period from the start to the end of the application program related to the usage record is preset for the application program. This is a method for determining that the belt is not qualified when it overlaps the belt. For example, the log information LOG shown in FIG. 2 indicates that the usage time zone of the application AP3 is 16: 51-17: 53, and the usage time zone of AP1 is 16: 58-17: 14. Is shown. In this way, there is no problem when the use time zone is in the activity time zone of the general user, but for example, when it is a midnight time zone such as 2 to 3 am on weekdays, Is unnatural. Therefore, if a time zone such as 1 am to 4 am on weekdays is set in advance as an ineligible time zone, the usage log that overlaps the ineligible time zone will have a startup log and end point indicating the beginning. It may be determined that the end log shown is ineligible.

  Of course, it is preferable to set an inappropriate time zone for each individual application program. For example, if the application is exclusively used for observing constellations, it is natural that it is used during the night time, and it is rather unnatural when it is used during the daytime. For such an application, for example, 8:00 to 16:00 may be set in advance as an ineligible time zone.

  In addition, as a determination condition, if even a part of the usage time zone overlaps the ineligible time zone, it may be determined to be ineligible, if the overlapping portion exceeds a predetermined time, or When the ratio of the overlapping portion with respect to the usage time zone exceeds a predetermined ratio, it may be determined to be ineligible.

  When such eligibility determination is performed, it is possible to suppress the presented aggregation result from being affected by an unauthorized operation, as in the first example.

  The third example of the eligibility determination method for the usage record is the ratio of the cumulative usage time of a specific application program to the total cumulative usage time obtained by adding up the cumulative usage times of all application programs used in the same information processing apparatus. Is a method of determining that the use record of the specific application program for the information processing apparatus is ineligible when the information exceeds a predetermined reference ratio.

  If it is a normal user, it is common to use a plurality of application programs by an information processing device owned by the user, and only a specific application will be used in a concentrated manner. This is a qualification method based on the idea. For example, when the log information LOG of a certain information processing device is analyzed, and the ratio of the cumulative usage time of a specific application program to the total cumulative usage time is 99%, the user selects this information processing device. In most cases, it is used as a dedicated device for executing the specific application.

  As described above, since the usage record of a user who uses only a specific application is far from the general usage record of a user, it is preferable to exclude it from the aggregation target. Therefore, for example, the reference ratio is set in advance as “95%”, and the ratio of the cumulative use time of the specific application program to the total cumulative use time for the specific information processing apparatus is the reference ratio “95%”. In the case of exceeding “”, it may be determined that the use record of the specific application program for the information processing apparatus is ineligible. Of course, all the usage records for the specific information processing apparatus may be ineligible.

  As a variation of the third example, the total number of activations may be used instead of the accumulated usage time. In this case, when the ratio of the number of activation times of a specific application program to the total number of activations of all application programs used in the same information processing apparatus exceeds a predetermined reference ratio, the information processing apparatus It is determined that the usage record of the specific application program is ineligible. If this method is also an ordinary user, it is common to start a plurality of application programs by an information processing apparatus owned by the user, and it is rare that only a specific application is started in a concentrated manner. This is based on the idea of

  Or you may make it determine with disqualification when both the conditions of the ratio regarding cumulative utilization time and the conditions of the ratio regarding the total number of activations are satisfied. That is, for the same information processing apparatus, the ratio of the cumulative usage time of a specific application program to the total cumulative usage time of the total cumulative usage time of all application programs exceeds a predetermined reference ratio, and the number of times that all application programs are started If the ratio of the number of times of activation of the specific application program to the total number of times of activation exceeds a predetermined reference ratio, the use history of the specific application program for the information processing apparatus is determined to be ineligible. Good.

  In the above, three specific examples of the eligibility determination method for the usage record have been described, but various other eligibility determination methods can be adopted. In either case, a predetermined determination condition may be set in the usage record collection / reporting unit 330 or the usage record totaling unit 220, and the qualification / non-qualification may be determined based on the determination condition.

  Of course, the determination result by the eligibility determination method described so far is not necessarily correct. In practice, some users will continue to use the application 24 hours a day, and some users will use the application in the middle of the night. Therefore, there are cases where it is determined to be ineligible even though it is originally a qualified usage record, and conversely, there may be cases where it is determined to be qualified despite being a ineligible usage record. However, the data totaled by the usage record totaling unit 220 is statistical data to the last, and even if the determination of eligibility is not 100% correct, by performing the eligibility determination described here, If there is an effect to reduce any unauthorized operation, it will be meaningful.

<<< §3. Embodiment for performing evaluation using personal information >>>
Here, an embodiment in which evaluation using personal information is added to the basic embodiment described in §1 will be described. FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a usage record evaluation system according to an embodiment that performs evaluation using this personal information. A major feature of the illustrated information processing apparatus 300A is that a personal information storage unit 380 is added to the information processing apparatus 300 shown in FIG. In response to this, the usage record collection report unit 330, the usage record storage unit 210, and the usage record totaling unit 220 also have some additional functions. The functions of the other components are the same as those of the system according to the basic embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and the description thereof is omitted here.

  The personal information storage unit 380 is a component that stores the personal information of the user who uses the information processing apparatus 300A. Like the file storage unit 340, the personal information storage unit 380 is a built-in or detachable nonvolatile memory, a hard disk device, or an optical recording. It can be configured by a device or the like. Alternatively, an external storage location accessible via the network N may be used as the personal information storage unit 380.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of personal information recorded in the personal information storage unit 380 in the system shown in FIG. In this example, the user's name, address, telephone number, gender, age, and occupation are recorded as personal information of the user A. Of course, as personal information, it is not necessary to use all these information, and one or more information selected from these groups may be used, or other personal information may be used. It doesn't matter. For example, the date of birth may be used instead of age. When the information processing apparatus 300A is an apparatus shared by a plurality of users, personal information is also recorded in the same manner for each of the shared user A, B, and B.

  Note that the process of storing personal information in the personal information storage unit 380 can be executed by, for example, a dedicated application program. In the case of the example shown in FIG. 6, the application program AP0 stored in the file storage unit 340 has a function of recording personal information. In general, the user may start the application program AP0 and enter personal information at an initial stage of starting to use the information processing apparatus 300A. That is, the activated AP0 is expanded on the memory 360 and executed by the program execution unit 350. The user may perform an operation of inputting each item of personal information via the input / output interface 370 in response to the request for AP0 executed in this way.

  The personal information input in this way is finally stored in the personal information storage unit 380. In this case, the entity of the personal information storage unit 380 is a part of the recording area of the file storage unit 340, and the stored personal information constitutes a data file used by the application program AP0. . Of course, the function of the application program AP0 may be incorporated into the OS program.

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, when the usage record collection reporting unit 330 reports the usage record to the application evaluation server 200, it performs a process of transmitting personal information in association with the use record. As a result, each usage record is stored in the usage record storage unit 210 in association with the personal information, and the usage record totaling unit 220 can total the usage record in consideration of the personal information. become. For example, FIG. 3 shows an example in which the usage results (log information LOG) reported from the users A, B and B are stored in the usage history storage unit 210. If the personal information of user A, user B, and niece is associated with each other, the usage record totaling unit 220 can perform aggregation considering the associated personal information.

  Specifically, the usage record totaling unit 220 can divide the user into a plurality of groups based on the associated personal information, and total the usage records for each group. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a totaling result of usage results in consideration of personal information. In this example, based on the item “age” in the personal information, each user is referred to as “10s”, “20s”, “30s”, “40 to 59 years old”, “60 years old or older”. This is an example in which the usage results are divided into five groups and tabulated separately for each of these five groups (FIG. 8 shows only the tabulated results for AP1 for convenience).

  In this way, if each user is divided into a plurality of groups according to age and the usage results are separately counted for each of these five groups, for example, “application program AP1 is popular in the 20s and 30s. It will be possible to make detailed evaluations by age such as “It is an application”. Of course, depending on the address, if each user is grouped into groups such as “Kanto district”, “Kansai district”, “Kyushu district”, etc., then “A popular application in Kansai” Evaluation can be presented, and if each user is grouped and tabulated according to occupation, evaluation such as “applications that are popular in the food and beverage industry” can be presented. .

  Since the personal information only needs to be associated with the usage record in some form, it is not necessary to attach the personal information as shown in FIG. 7 to each log information illustrated in FIG. For example, a unique user identification code is given to each user (if the information processing apparatus 300 is a smartphone, for example, a telephone number can be used as the user identification code), and the usage record collection reporting unit 330 When reporting the usage record, the user identification code is attached and transmitted, and the personal information is transmitted only once in association with the user identification code and stored in the usage record storage unit 210. It is sufficient to retransmit the new personal information only when the content of the personal information is changed.

  Recently, many users are uncomfortable with sending personal information to the outside. Therefore, in practice, when the present invention is implemented in the form of performing evaluation using personal information, the usage record collection report unit 330 sends the personal information to the user via an input / output interface 370 to an external server. If the user consents to use the data for statistical processing, if there is consent from the user, report the usage results associated with the personal information, if there is no consent by the user It is preferable to report a usage record that does not associate personal information.

  Of course, in order to count the number of users in the usage record totaling unit 220, each usage record stored in the usage record storage unit 210 is for which user (which information processing apparatus). Therefore, the usage record collection reporting unit 330 needs to attach and transmit a user identification code for distinguishing users from each other when reporting the usage record. In this case, when the user's consent is not obtained, the user identification code and personal information as shown in FIG. 7 may not be associated.

  Thus, when reporting personal information on the premise of the user's consent, the totaling considering personal information, such as totaling by age group as shown in FIG. I cannot help it. Therefore, if the number of approved users is small, the number of usage records serving as a population is small, and it is difficult to perform statistically reliable evaluation. After all, in order to perform accurate tabulation in consideration of personal information, it is necessary to have as many users as possible consent to transmission of personal information. For that purpose, it is only necessary to perform an operation so that only the user who has accepted can enjoy some merit.

  Specifically, the usage result presenting unit 230 compares with the total result presented to the user who did not consent (hereinafter referred to as an unapproved user) to the user who performed the consent (hereinafter referred to as the authorized user). It is possible to perform operations such as presenting aggregate results with some restrictions. For example, when the presentation showing the ranking as shown in FIG. 5 is performed, all the ranking applications are presented to the approved user, but only the top three applications are presented to the unapproved user. If this restriction is imposed, it is possible to expect an effect of prompting the unapproved user to accept. Of course, for unsolicited users, it is possible to impose restrictions such as showing only the “number of users” and not “number of activations” or “cumulative usage time”. Can also impose restrictions such as not presenting the total results.

  As described above, in order for the usage record presenting unit 230 to make a limited presentation for an unapproved user, when the first report of the usage record is received from the approved user, An identification code is recorded, and when an access is received from the information processing apparatus, it is determined whether the user is an authorized user or an unacknowledged user based on the identification code of the access source user. If the user is an unapproved user, limited presentation may be performed. When presenting the total results by the application providing server 100, the identification code of the authorized user may be recorded in the application providing server 100, and the same processing may be performed.

  Of course, in implementing the present invention, the user identification code is not essential. Therefore, it is also possible to operate such that the usage record collection report unit 330 transmits only the usage record (log information) without attaching any information specifying the user or the information processing apparatus. However, if such an operation is performed, it becomes impossible to distinguish whether the plurality of transmitted usage records are usage records by the same user or usage records by different users, and the user for a specific application program I can't keep track of the numbers. Therefore, in practice, it is preferable to attach and transmit at least a user identification code for distinguishing users.

  As the user identification code, for example, a telephone number, name, address, etc. stored in the personal information storage unit 380 can be used. However, some users may hesitate to send the phone number to the outside. In order to deal with such a user, the usage record collection and reporting unit 330 generates anonymous information by applying a one-way function to the data indicating the personal information stored in the personal information storage unit 380. The anonymous information is related to the usage record and reported to the application evaluation server, the usage record storage unit 210 stores the use record in association with the anonymous information, and the use record totaling unit 220 stores the use record as the anonymous information. Should be counted in consideration of

  FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of an algorithm for creating anonymous information based on personal information. In this example, a HASH function is used as a one-way function. That is, in the case of the example shown in FIG. 9A, the anonymous information includes a character string of “name”, a numeric string of “phone number”, and some specified character string (for example, stored in the personal information storage unit 380). , A character string such as “PAT” or a numeric string indicating the year) may be provided as a HASH value obtained by applying a HASH function to data.

  FIG. 9 (b) shows a specific example in which anonymous information is created by applying the algorithm shown in FIG. 9 (a) based on the personal information of the user A shown in FIG. That is, in this example, the HASH value for the original character string data “Patent Taro 090-****-**** PAT” is the anonymous information of the user A. When a smartphone is used as the information processing apparatus 300A, anonymous information may be created using an ID of a SIM card instead of a name and a telephone number. The anonymous information obtained in this way is information uniquely obtained based on the original character string data. However, since the HASH function is a one-way function, the original character string data is restored from the anonymous information. I can't do it. Therefore, even if anonymous information is transmitted to the outside, there is no risk of leakage of personal information such as name and phone number.

  The anonymous information obtained by the algorithm as shown in the figure is not necessarily logically unique, and the probability that the anonymous information obtained for different users A and B coincides by chance is not zero. . However, since such a probability is as close as possible to 0, in practice, the anonymous information obtained in this way can be used as a unique user identification code for each user. In this way, if anonymous information is used as a user identification code, it is safe for the user, and if the anonymous information is reported to the usage record, the usage record totaling unit 220 is In addition, individual usage results can be aggregated separately for each user.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a result of using performance accounting in consideration of such anonymous information. This example is a tabulation result indicating the percentage of users who use AP2 to AP6 as second application programs among users who use AP1 as the first application program. Specifically, among users who use AP1, 10% of users use AP2, 52% of users use AP3, and so on. ing. In order to perform such aggregation, it is not necessary to have specific personal information such as each user's name and age, but for each individual usage record that has been sent, which usage record is for the same user Need to be identified. The above-described anonymous information can play a sufficient role in performing such identification.

  In §2, the usage record collecting / reporting unit 330 or the usage record totaling unit 220 performs eligibility determination on each use record, and the use record determined to be ineligible is excluded from the report target or the count target However, in the case of an embodiment in which evaluation is performed using personal information, unique eligibility determination using personal information can be performed.

  That is, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, the usage record collection reporting unit 330 or the usage record totaling unit 220 performs eligibility determination based on the associated personal information for each usage record, and uses determined to be ineligible. The actual results can be excluded from the reporting target or the totaling target. For example, as an eligibility determination for a usage record related to a specific user, a usage time period from the start to the end of the application program related to the usage record is set in advance for the age of the specific user. If it overlaps with an ineligible time zone, it can be judged as ineligible.

  In §2, an example of setting a time zone such as 1 am to 4 am on weekdays as an ineligible time zone was described, but the usage results associated with personal information differ depending on the personal information. Eligible time zones can be set. For example, if personal information of age is used, a user who is 12 years of age or younger can perform a separate setting such that the ineligible time zone is changed from 23:00 every day to 7:00 the next day.

<<< §4. Embodiment for performing evaluation using position information >>>
Here, an embodiment in which evaluation using position information is further added to the basic embodiment described in §1 will be described. FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a utilization performance evaluation system according to an embodiment that performs evaluation using this position information. A major feature of the illustrated information processing apparatus 300B is that a position information recognition unit 385 is added to the information processing apparatus 300 shown in FIG. In response to this, the usage record collection report unit 330, the usage record storage unit 210, and the usage record totaling unit 220 also have some additional functions. The functions of the other components are the same as those of the system according to the basic embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and the description thereof is omitted here.

  The position information recognition unit 385 is a component that recognizes the current position information of the information processing apparatus 300B itself, and for example, a GPS receiver can be used as the position information recognition unit 385. As recent smartphones and tablet-type information terminal devices, devices with a built-in GPS receiver have become common, and if these devices are used as the information processing device 300B, the built-in GPS receiver is positioned as it is. What is necessary is just to utilize as the information recognition part 385.

  A general GPS receiver has a function of recognizing its own position as latitude / longitude information in a predetermined cycle. FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of position information (latitude / longitude information) recognized by the position information recognition unit 385 in the system illustrated in FIG. 11. In this example, information on latitude and longitude is acquired at 1 minute intervals. In the case of the embodiment shown in FIG. 11, the location information recognition unit 385 can acquire location information at each time point. Therefore, the usage record collection report unit 330 adds the usage record (log information LOG) as shown in FIG. 12. Thus, position information at each time point or information derived based on the position information (for example, district information and movement mode information described later) can be transmitted to the application evaluation server 200.

  On the other hand, in the application evaluation server 200, the usage record storage unit 210 stores the transmitted usage record and position information at each time point or information derived based on this position information. Since the usage record totaling unit 220 can recognize the temporal transition of the position of the information processing device 300B based on the position information at each time point or information derived based on this position information, Aggregation can be performed in consideration of information or information derived based on this position information. As a totaling method considering the position information, the usage record totaling unit 220 sets a plurality of districts on the map, and based on the usage records and the location information stored in the usage record storage unit 210, It is possible to identify the use district and take the method of counting the use results by district.

  FIG. 13 is a plan view showing an example in which four districts A, B, C, and D are set on a map. Since latitude and longitude are defined in the map, if position information consisting of latitude and longitude as shown in FIG. 12 is given, a point P corresponding to the position information can be specified on the map, and in which district It is possible to recognize whether the point belongs to. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 13, the point P is recognized as a point belonging to the district A. Therefore, if position information at each time point as shown in FIG. 12 is given, it is possible to specify in which district the information processing apparatus 300B was located at each time point on the time axis. Such specification of a district may be performed by the usage record totaling unit 220 or may be performed by the usage record collecting / reporting unit 330. In the former case, the position information as shown in FIG. 12 is transmitted to the evaluation server 200, but in the latter case, it is sufficient to transmit the specified district information at each time point.

  FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of an evaluation method (district evaluation) using position information in the system illustrated in FIG. 11. The upper bar extending along the time axis t indicates a district recognized based on position information at each time point. In this example, it can be seen that the first half was in district A, but the second half was moved to district B. On the other hand, the three bars shown in the lower row indicate the use time zones (time zones from the start to the end) of the application programs AP4, AP1 and AP2. These utilization time zones can be recognized based on log information LOG as exemplified in FIG. Finally, in the example shown in the figure, it can be recognized that the application AP4 is used in the district A, AP2 is used in the district B, and AP1 is used in the districts A and B.

  As described above, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 11, since it is possible to specify not only the use time zone but also the use district for each application program, the use results can be aggregated by district. For example, in the case of the example shown in FIG. 14, the usage time of application AP4 is aggregated for district A, the usage time of AP2 is aggregated for district B, and the usage time of AP1 is aggregated for district A in the first half until the broken line. The second half will be tabulated for district B. FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an example of the result of aggregation for each district in this way, and the cumulative usage time for each district is shown for each of the application programs AP1 to AP6. The tabulation result shown in FIG. 15 is obtained by assigning the numerical values in the column of “cumulative usage time (total for all users)” in the tabulation result shown in FIG. 4 to four districts A to D.

  FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating a presentation example using the pie chart of the aggregation results illustrated in FIG. Based on the totaling result as shown in FIG. 15 performed by the usage history totaling unit 220, the usage history presenting unit 230 can present a pie chart as shown in FIG. As described above, when the usage results are totaled in consideration of the position information, the usage ratio of each application program for each district can be recognized, and the evaluation for each district becomes possible.

  For example, in the case of the example shown in FIG. 16, the applications AP1 and AP2 have almost the same usage time for each district, and there is almost no bias depending on the district, but AP3 and AP5 are mainly used in the district C, and AP6 Can recognize the distribution tendency that is mainly used in the district B. From such a tabulation result, it is possible to obtain information that a specific application is mainly used in urban areas or mainly in rural areas. It is also possible to obtain information that the application is not popular in Kanto but is popular in Kansai. As described above, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 11, it is possible to evaluate each application program in detail, including the geographical position being used.

  In §2, the usage record collection / reporting unit 330 or the usage record totaling unit 220 performs eligibility determination on each use record, and excludes the use record determined to be ineligible from the report target or the count target. Although an example has been described, in the case of an embodiment that performs evaluation using position information, unique eligibility determination using position information is possible.

  That is, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 11, the usage record collection reporting unit 330 or the usage record totaling unit 220 performs eligibility determination based on position information at the time of use for each use record, and the use determined to be unqualified. The actual results can be excluded from the reporting target or the totaling target.

  Specifically, the usage record collection / report unit 330 or the usage record totaling unit 220 sets an inappropriate place for using the application program as an unqualified place in advance, and the position information indicates the unqualified place. If it is shown, it can be determined to be ineligible. For example, when an application program is intended only for users in Japan, but a usage record indicating use in a foreign country is reported, there is a high possibility that the usage is intended for unauthorized operation. In such a case, if the foreign country is set as an ineligible place, the usage record in the foreign country can be excluded from the aggregation. Alternatively, if the application program is used only for the purpose of guiding a specific museum, a place other than the museum may be set as an ineligible place.

  It is also possible to perform eligibility determination by combining the ineligible location and the ineligible time zone. In other words, the usage record collection / report unit 330 or the usage record totaling unit 220 sets the specific time zone as an ineligible time zone for the location that is inappropriate for using the application program in the specific time zone. It is possible to set a combination that makes a non-qualified place an unqualified place, and to determine that use results indicating use in the unqualified place during the unqualified time zone are ineligible.

  For example, the time zone from 0:00 to 7:00 on weekdays and the whole time zone on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays indicate that, when there is a district where entry is prohibited, it is used in that district in that district. The usage results are unnatural and are likely to be used for unauthorized operations. In such a case, if the district is set as an ineligible place and the time zone is set as an ineligible time zone, usage results indicating use in the ineligible location during the ineligible time zone will be calculated from the aggregation. Can be excluded.

  Alternatively, the usage record totaling unit 220 rejects these usage records when there are a number of usage records that exceed a predetermined standard indicating use in a location close to a close time zone for the same application program. It is also possible to make an eligibility determination. In the usage record storage unit 210, various usage records are reported from a large number of information processing apparatuses. Among these usage records, the same application program is recorded in a place close to a close time zone. If there are many items that indicate usage, there is a high possibility that an organized unauthorized operation has been performed.

  For example, if an application program development company conducts an act of using a specific application with the total mobilization of employees for the purpose of enhancing the evaluation of its application, the application will be in close proximity in the same building. A number of usage records indicating that it has been used will be reported. If the eligibility determination as described above is performed, such a report is determined to be ineligible and can be excluded from the aggregation.

  By the way, when the location information is used, not only can the application program use district be specified, but also the user's movement mode can be specified. That is, the usage record totaling unit 220 can estimate the movement mode of the user based on the time change of the position information, and can total the usage track records by movement mode.

  FIG. 12 shows an example in which the latitude / longitude of the current location is acquired as 1-minute cycle as the position information. However, since the difference information of the latitude / longitude can be converted into distance information, information processing can be performed from the position information. The moving speed of the user who owns the device 300B can be calculated. Further, it is possible to estimate the movement mode of the user from the calculated moving speed. Specifically, when the moving speed is almost zero, it indicates a stopped state, when the moving speed indicates a low speed movement of about 4 km / h, it indicates a moving state by walking, and a high speed movement with a moving speed of 20 km / h or more. If it is, it can be estimated that the vehicle is moving.

  Of course, in actuality, even if the vehicle is moving, it may stop at the station or stop at a signal, so when estimating the movement mode, find the average movement speed for a certain period of time. It will be necessary. In addition, if the vehicle is involved in a traffic jam even though it is moving on a vehicle, it may be erroneously estimated that the vehicle is moving on foot. Thus, although the estimation result of the user's movement mode described above is not necessarily correct, it is only used as a method of statistical aggregation processing, so even if there is a possibility that erroneous estimation may be performed. In practice, no major problems occur.

  FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating an example of an evaluation method (evaluation by movement mode) using position information in the system illustrated in FIG. 11. The upper bar extending along the time axis t indicates the movement mode recognized based on the temporal change (movement speed of the user) of the position information. In the case of this example, according to the moving speed of the user, the movement mode at each time point is set to a stopped state (for example, less than 0.1 km / h), a low-speed moving state (for example, 0.1 km / h or more and less than 10 km / h), high speed It is classified into three stages of moving states (for example, 10 km / h or more). The stop state corresponds to the normal use state where the user uses the information processing device while stopping, and the low speed movement state corresponds to the state where the user uses the information processing device while walking, and the high speed movement state Corresponds to a state in which the user is using the information processing apparatus while traveling on a train or a car.

  On the other hand, the three bars shown in the lower part of FIG. 17 indicate the use time zones (time zones from the start to the end) of the application programs AP2, AP1, and AP5. These utilization time zones can be recognized based on log information LOG as exemplified in FIG. After all, in the case of the illustrated example, the application AP2 is used in a stopped state, the AP5 is used while riding on a vehicle, and the AP1 is initially used in a stopped state, but is used while walking on the way from the middle. Can be estimated. Such estimation of the movement mode may be performed by the usage record totaling unit 220 or the usage record collection reporting unit 330. In the former case, position information as shown in FIG. 12 is transmitted to the evaluation server 200, but in the latter case, it is sufficient to transmit the estimated movement mode at each time point.

  In this way, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 11, it is possible to estimate not only the usage time zone but also the movement mode at the time of use for each application program, so that the usage results can be aggregated by movement mode. Become. For example, in the case of the example shown in FIG. 17, the usage time of the application AP2 is counted as a stopped state, the usage time of the AP5 is counted as a high-speed movement state, and the usage time of the AP1 is counted as a stopped state until the broken line. The latter half is counted as a low-speed movement state. FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an example of the result of the totalization for each movement mode in this way, and the accumulated usage time for each movement mode is shown for each of the application programs AP1 to AP6. The tabulation result shown in FIG. 18 is obtained by assigning the numerical values in the column of “cumulative usage time (total for all users)” in the tabulation result shown in FIG. 4 to three movement modes.

  Of course, the utilization result presenting unit 230 can present such a totaling result by a graph such as a pie chart so that the constituent ratios of the three movement modes can be confirmed at a glance. As described above, when the usage results are totaled in consideration of the movement mode estimated based on the time change of the position information, the usage ratio for each movement mode of each application program can be recognized, Evaluation becomes possible. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 18, it can be seen that many application programs are used while stopped, whereas only the application AP5 is used during high-speed movement. Thereby, AP5 can evaluate that it is an application which many users use while riding a vehicle, such as commuting. As described above, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 11, detailed evaluation including the movement mode at the time of use is possible for each application program.

<<< §5. Embodiment for performing evaluation using acceleration information >>>
Here, an embodiment in which evaluation using acceleration information is further added to the basic embodiment described in §1 will be described. FIG. 19 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a utilization performance evaluation system according to an embodiment that performs evaluation using this acceleration information. A major feature of the illustrated information processing apparatus 300C is that an acceleration sensor 387 is added to the information processing apparatus 300 shown in FIG. In response to this, the usage record collection report unit 330, the usage record storage unit 210, and the usage record totaling unit 220 also have some additional functions. The functions of the other components are the same as those of the system according to the basic embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and the description thereof is omitted here.

  The acceleration sensor 387 is a component that detects acceleration acting on the apparatus housing of the information processing apparatus 300C. Recently, due to the development of MEMS technology, a small-sized acceleration sensor that can be built into a portable information processing apparatus has been put into practical use, and is widely used as a camera shake correction sensor in digital cameras and the like. As the acceleration sensor 387, a general sensor for such a portable device may be used.

  In the system shown in FIG. 19, the usage record collection report unit 330 has a function of transmitting, to the application evaluation server 200, information obtained based on the acceleration detection at each time point by the acceleration sensor in addition to the usage record. The usage record storage unit 210 stores the transmitted usage record and information obtained based on the acceleration detection. Therefore, the usage record totaling unit 220 can total the usage record in consideration of information obtained based on the acceleration detection.

  FIG. 20 is a graph showing an example of a measured value of the acceleration α measured by the acceleration sensor 387 in the system shown in FIG. Here, FIG. 20A shows a waveform when the user holding the information processing apparatus 300C is in a stopped state, and FIG. 20B shows a waveform when the user is walking and moving. FIG. 20 (c) shows a waveform when the user is moving in the vehicle. When the acceleration sensor 387 has a function of detecting three-dimensional acceleration for each coordinate axis direction component, for example, the magnitude of the combined vector of these three axis components may be used as a measured value of the acceleration α.

  In both graphs, the horizontal axis is the time axis t and the vertical axis is the acceleration axis α, and each has a unique characteristic in the amplitude of the detected value of the acceleration α. That is, in the stop state shown in FIG. 20 (a), the amplitude is within the reference value Δ (between + Δ / 2 and −Δ / 2), but in the walking movement state shown in FIG. 20 (b), A waveform whose amplitude periodically exceeds the reference value Δ is obtained in accordance with the step period of the step. In the vehicle movement state shown in FIG. 20 (c), a waveform whose amplitude exceeds the reference value Δ is almost always obtained.

  Therefore, based on the amplitude value of the acceleration detection value or the change period thereof, the user's movement mode can be estimated, and the usage results can be tabulated by movement mode. For example, as in the example shown in FIG. 20, if the user's movement mode is estimated to be one of three modes of a stop state, a walking movement state, or a vehicle movement state, the usage record is obtained for each of these three modes. Can be tabulated.

  In the latter half of §4, an example has been described in which the usage record totaling unit 220 estimates the user's movement mode based on the time change of the position information and totals the usage track record by movement mode. In the case of the embodiment, it is possible to perform equivalent tabulation using acceleration information instead of position information. For example, as shown in FIG. 17, for each individual user, three modes of a stop state, a walking movement state, and a vehicle movement state on the time axis t are estimated based on the acceleration information as shown in FIG. In addition, it is possible to obtain a total result for each movement mode.

  Note that the information obtained based on the acceleration detection transmitted to the application evaluation server 200 by the usage record collection report unit 330 does not necessarily need to be measurement waveform data itself indicating the amplitude of the acceleration α as illustrated in FIG. . Of course, when the waveform data of the acceleration α as illustrated in FIG. 20 is transmitted to the application evaluation server 200 as it is, when the usage record totaling unit 220 performs aggregation, the waveform data is analyzed and each user's A process of estimating the movement mode at the time point is performed, but such an estimation process may be performed by the usage record collection report unit 330. In this case, the information obtained based on the acceleration detection transmitted to the application evaluation server 200 is information indicating a movement mode at each time point (for example, any one of three modes of a stop state, a walking movement state, and a vehicle movement state). The amount of information can be greatly reduced.

<<< §6. Embodiment with comment posting >>>
So far, an embodiment has been described in which log information indicating the start time and end time of each application program is collected, the usage results are tabulated, and presented. Here, an embodiment having a function of accepting a comment from a user and presenting it will be described.

  FIG. 21 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the usage record evaluation system according to the embodiment having the comment posting function. The characteristic of the illustrated information processing apparatus 300D is that a comment posting unit 390 is added to the information processing apparatus 300 illustrated in FIG. 1, and the characteristic of the illustrated application evaluation server 200D is the same as that of the application evaluation server 200 illustrated in FIG. The comment storage unit 250 and the comment presentation unit 260 are added. The functions of the other components are the same as those of the system according to the basic embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and the description thereof is omitted here.

  The comment posting unit 390 receives user comments regarding individual application programs via the input / output interface 370, and transmits them to the application evaluation server 200D via the terminal-side communication unit 310 for posting. I do. On the other hand, the comment storage unit 250 provided on the application evaluation server 200D side stores a comment transmitted from the information processing device 300D side via the server side communication unit 240, and the comment presenting unit 260 includes a comment storage unit. A process of presenting a comment stored in 250 is performed.

  The comment presenting method by the comment presenting unit 260 is the same as the method of presenting the use result totaling result by the use result presenting unit 230, and can be presented in the form of a web page or provided by an application according to the user's request. The server 100 can present the list of applications to be downloaded.

  In general, it is widely performed to present a comment posted by a user on a site where an application program is downloaded. Therefore, in the system shown in FIG. 21, the technique itself for storing the comment posted from the comment posting unit 390 in the comment storage unit 250 and presenting the comment by the comment presenting unit 260 is conventionally known. is there. However, in the system shown in FIG. 21, when posting a comment, additional processing can be performed in consideration of the usage record collected by the usage record collection reporting unit 330. Can be devised so that can be evaluated correctly. Hereinafter, some of such devices will be specifically described.

  A first idea is to provide a posting condition check function in the comment posting unit 390. That is, the comment posting unit 390 refers to the usage record collected by the usage record collection reporting unit 330 for the application program to be posted, and accepts the posting of a comment only when the referenced use record satisfies a predetermined posting condition. What should I do? For example, as a posting condition, a condition such as “the accumulated usage time of the application program to be posted must be equal to or greater than a predetermined reference time” is set in advance, and an application whose accumulated usage time does not satisfy the predetermined reference time For the program, the comment posting unit 390 may refuse to post a comment.

  FIG. 22 is a diagram showing a screen display example at the time of a comment posting operation in the system shown in FIG. In the case of the embodiment shown here, when the user gives an instruction to post a comment to the comment posting unit 390 via the input / output interface 370, the comment posting unit 390 receives the instruction via the input / output interface 370. Then, a list of application programs (installed applications) stored in the file storage unit 340 is displayed on a display screen or the like provided in the information processing apparatus 300D, and an instruction to select a posting target is prompted.

  FIG. 22A shows an example of the posting target selection screen. In the case of the example shown in FIG. 21, since the file storage unit 340 stores four sets of application programs AP1, AP3, AP4, AP6, the four sets of application programs are displayed on the selection screen shown in FIG. The name is displayed in the posting target selection column 391. Of these four sets, however, comment input buttons labeled “comment” are displayed in the AP3 and AP6 columns, but such buttons are not displayed in the AP1 and AP4 columns. . This is because the applications AP3 and AP6 in which the comment input button is displayed satisfy a predetermined posting condition and can input a comment, whereas the applications AP1 and AP1 in which the comment input button is not displayed. AP4 does not satisfy the predetermined posting condition and indicates that a comment cannot be input.

  For example, when a condition such as “the accumulated usage time of the application program to be posted is 30 minutes or more” is set as the posting condition, the comment posting unit 390 uses the usage record stored in the usage record collection reporting unit 330. Based on the results, the accumulated usage time of each application program at the present time may be totaled, and the comment input button may be displayed only for the application having the accumulated usage time of 30 minutes or more. In the case of the example shown in FIG. 22 (a), the cumulative usage time of AP3 and AP6 is 30 minutes or more and satisfies the posting condition, but the cumulative usage time of AP1 and AP4 is less than 30 minutes. Will not be satisfied. As a result, the user can input a comment by clicking the comment input button for AP3 and AP6, but cannot input a comment for AP1 and AP4. That is, for AP1 and AP4 whose accumulated usage time is less than 30 minutes, the comment posting unit 390 rejects the posting of comments.

  Here, in order to input a comment about the application AP3 on the posting target selection field 391 of FIG. 22A, the user selects AP3, that is, the comment input displayed in the AP3 field. Consider the case of clicking on a button. In this case, the screen display is switched as shown in FIG. 22B, and a comment input field 392 for the application AP3 selected as a posting target is displayed. The user performs an operation of inputting a comment for AP3 as a character string in the comment input field 392 using a touch panel or the like prepared as the input / output interface 370. In the example shown in the figure, a state in which a character string “Easy to use software with various functions” is input as a comment is shown.

  In this way, when the input of the character string constituting the comment is completed, the user can click the post button labeled “Post” in the lower right corner of the screen to make a posting (note that “Cancel” is displayed in the lower left corner of the screen). When the cancel button is clicked, the comment input is canceled and the screen returns to the screen shown in FIG. The comment posting unit 390 performs processing to transmit the character string input in the comment input field 392 to the application evaluation server 200D as a comment for the application AP3 when the post button is clicked.

  After all, in the example shown in FIG. 22, the comment posting unit 390 displays a screen on which a comment input button can be clicked only for an application program that satisfies a predetermined posting condition, and for other application programs, The user interface is such that comments cannot be posted. Of course, as a method of rejecting posting of a comment to an application program that does not satisfy the posting condition, other methods using various user interfaces can be adopted.

  For example, instead of the display shown in FIG. 22 (a), comment input buttons are displayed for all application fields in the posting target selection field 391, and a button for an application that satisfies the posting conditions is clicked. In this case, the screen is switched to the display screen of the comment input field 392 as shown in FIG. 22B, and when a button for an application that does not satisfy the posting condition is clicked, as shown in FIG. You may make it switch to a posting refusal screen. When the user sees such a posting rejection screen and clicks the cancel button, the selection screen shown in FIG. 22 (a) may be displayed again so that another application can be selected.

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 23 (a), a button labeled “Usage time display” is provided at the lower right of the screen. When the user clicks this button, the button shown in FIG. 23 (b) is displayed. As shown, the accumulated usage time up to the present time is displayed for each application (installed application) stored in the file storage unit 340. With such a display, the user can recognize that the accumulated usage time of the applications AP1 and AP4 is currently less than 30 minutes, which is the posting condition. Such a display can be performed by the comment posting unit 390 referring to the usage record stored in the usage record collection reporting unit 330. In the case of the embodiment shown here, when the user clicks the button labeled “OK” at the lower right of the screen, the screen returns to the screen of FIG. 23 (a) or FIG. 22 (a).

  As described above, with reference to FIG. 22 and FIG. 23, the example in which the posting condition such as “the accumulated usage time of the application program to be posted is equal to or longer than the predetermined reference time” has been set. In addition to this, various conditions can be set. For example, it is possible to set a posting condition based on the number of activations, such as “the activation number of the application program to be posted is equal to or greater than a predetermined reference number”. Or, combining the accumulated usage time and the number of activations, such as “the accumulated usage time of the application program to be posted is not less than the predetermined reference time and the activation count is not less than the predetermined reference number” You may set posting conditions.

  In addition, as a posting condition for a specific application program, a posting condition that considers not only the usage record of the specific application program but also the usage records of all application programs belonging to the same genre may be set. In this case, information indicating the genre is associated with each application program in advance. FIG. 24 is a diagram illustrating an example in which any one of five genres “document creation”, “communication”, “schedule”, “game”, and “map” is associated with each application program AP1 to AP6. .

  When the posting condition is determined in consideration of such a genre, the comment posting unit 390 determines that the total accumulated usage time of application programs belonging to the same genre as the application program to be posted is a predetermined reference time. If this is the case, or if the total number of activations of application programs belonging to the same genre as the application program to be posted is equal to or greater than a predetermined reference number, or if both are satisfied, the posting What is necessary is just to judge that the posting condition about an object is satisfy | filled.

  For example, in the example shown in FIG. 23 (b), the accumulated usage time of the application AP1 is 25 minutes and does not satisfy the 30 minutes as the posting condition. However, when the genre classification as shown in FIG. 24 is performed, the application AP6 also belongs to the genre “document creation” to which the application AP1 belongs, and the application that belongs to the same genre “document creation”. The total accumulated usage time of the programs AP1 and AP6 is 464 minutes. Therefore, in this example, if the posting conditions are determined in consideration of the genre, the applications AP1 and AP6 both post the posting condition that “the total accumulated usage time of application programs belonging to the same genre is 30 minutes or more”. Thus, the user can post a comment to the applications AP1 and AP6.

  In this example, the accumulated usage time of the user for the application AP1 is less than 30 minutes, but the user has a sufficient accumulated usage time for another application AP6 belonging to the genre “document creation”. In evaluating an application of the genre of “creation”, it can be determined that the user has sufficient knowledge and experience. The determination of the posting condition considering the genre is effective in making such a flexible determination. Of course, the determination method of the posting condition considering the genre is not limited to the above-described example. For example, a posting condition is set such that “the number of programs that have been used (regardless of usage time or number of activations) among application programs belonging to the same genre as the application program to be posted is equal to or greater than a predetermined standard”. You can also.

  For example, information indicating which genre each application program belongs to may be embedded in advance in the application program provided by the application providing server 100 as information indicating the genre. If it does so, the comment contribution part 390 can recognize the affiliation genre by referring to the genre information embedded in each application program. Alternatively, the comment posting unit 390 may store a genre table indicating the genres of typical application programs, or the comment posting unit 390 may prepare for an external server via the network N. The generated genre table may be referred to.

  As described above, in the system shown in FIG. 21, the comment posting unit 390 is devised to provide a check function for posting conditions, so that it is possible to eliminate unauthorized posting of comments and allow the user to perform a correct evaluation. Such comments can be presented. For example, an application program developer mobilizes relatives or acquaintances to post positive comments that their application program is excellent, or negative comments that rival application programs are bad Even if the application program is urged to do so, it is impossible to make such a posting unless the user actually uses the application program and satisfies the posting conditions. Therefore, it is possible to suppress false comment postings by users who are not actually using it.

  A second idea for enabling correct evaluation in consideration of the usage record when posting a comment is to add weight information corresponding to the use record to the comment. That is, the comment posting unit 390 is provided with a function of adding weight information to a posted comment and transmitting the comment based on the usage record collected by the usage record collection reporting unit 330. If the comment to which is added is stored, the comment presenting unit 260 can present each comment in a manner corresponding to the weight information. In this case, it is a reasonable method to adopt the basic policy of “heavy weight is given to highly reliable comments, and comments with higher weight are presented in a more prominent manner”. It turns out that.

  As the weight information according to the usage record, the weight information according to the accumulated usage time can be used. For example, the comment posting unit 390 may add heavier weight information as the accumulated usage time of the application program to be posted is longer. FIG. 25 is a diagram illustrating an example of a weight table for adding weight information based on the accumulated usage time. According to this weight table, for an application program having an accumulated usage time of less than 1 hour, a value of W = 0 is associated as weight information, and for an application program having an accumulated usage time of 1 hour to less than 5 hours, A value of W = 1 is associated as information, and a value of W = 2 is associated as weight information for an application program having an accumulated usage time of 5 hours or more. Of course, instead of using the weight table to define the weight information, the weight information corresponding to the usage record may be associated based on some relational expression. For example, a value W that is linearly associated with an accumulated usage time (a value rounded in hour units) is defined as weight information. If the accumulated usage time is 1 hour, W = 1, if it is 1 hour, W = 2,. Correlation such as W = 10 can also be performed.

  When posting a comment about a specific application program based on a user's instruction, the comment posting unit 390 refers to the usage record related to the application program in the usage record collection report unit 330 and refers to the application at that time. Recognizing the cumulative usage time of the program, for example, according to the weight table shown in FIG. 25, the value of the weight information W to be added to the comment (in this example, 0, 1, or 2) is determined. . And when transmitting a comment with respect to application evaluation server 200D, the process which adds the weight information determined and transmits is performed. For example, when the accumulated usage time for each application program is the time illustrated in FIG. 23B, weight information W = 0 is added to the comments for the applications AP1 and AP4, and AP3 W = 1 is added to the comment, and W = 2 is added to the comment for AP6.

  As described above, when the comment posting unit 390 adds weight information to each comment and transmits the comment, the comment storage unit 250 stores the comment associated with the weight information as shown in FIG. Will be. In the illustrated example, weight information W1, W2, and W3 are added to the comments C1, C2, and C3, respectively. Therefore, the comment presenting unit 260 can present each comment in a manner corresponding to the added weight information. Specifically, the comment may be presented in a more conspicuous manner as the added weight is larger.

  For example, the comment presenting unit 260 can present a plurality of comments in the order corresponding to the weight information. FIG. 27A shows an example in which four comments posted for the application AP1 are presented by such a method. In this example, the weight information of W = 2 is added to the comment presented first, and the weight information of W = 1 is attached to the comments presented second and third. The fourth comment is added with weight information W = 0. Here, the numerical value of the weight information W is a value determined based on the weight table shown in FIG.

  Thus, if each comment is presented in descending order of the value of the weight information W, the user's comment with a longer accumulated usage time will be presented at a more prominent position, and thus more reliable. As the comment is estimated, it is presented in a form that is easy to see.

  Or the comment presentation part 260 can also display the character which comprises each comment by changing a font, a size, a color, or another display mode according to weight information. FIG. 27B shows an example in which four comments posted for the application AP1 are presented by such a method. The example shown in the figure is an example in which the font is changed in accordance with the weight information, and the comment (second comment in the figure) to which weight information W = 2 is added is displayed in a thick Gothic font. The comments to which weight information W = 1 is added (the first and fourth comments in the figure) are normally displayed in a Gothic font, and weight information W = 0 is added. The comment (the third comment in the figure) is displayed in Mincho font.

  Thus, if a comment having a larger weight information W value is displayed using a more conspicuous font, the comment of the user having a longer accumulated usage time is presented in a more prominent manner, and thus is more reliable. As the comment is estimated, it is presented in a form that is easy to see.

  Of course, a comment with a larger value of the weight information W may be displayed with a larger size character or may be displayed with a more conspicuous color. Alternatively, the display mode is such that a comment to which weight information of W = 2 is added is displayed with a double underline, and a comment to which weight information of W = 1 is added with an underline. May be changed according to the weight information.

  As described above, the comment posting unit 390 has described an example in which heavier weight information is added as the accumulated use time of the application program to be posted is longer. However, it is also possible to refer to the number of activations instead of the accumulated use time. is there. That is, instead of the weight table illustrated in FIG. 25, for example, for an application program whose activation count is less than 5 times, a value of W = 0 is associated as weight information, and the activation count is 5 times or more and less than 20 times. For application programs, a weight table is prepared in which a value of W = 1 is associated with the weight information, and for application programs with 20 or more activations, a value of W = 2 is associated with the weight information. The comment posting unit 390 may add heavier weight information as the number of activations of the application program to be posted increases.

  Further, the weight information to be added can be determined using the accumulated use time for each genre instead of the accumulated use time of each application program. For example, as in the example shown in FIG. 24, information indicating the genre is associated with each application program, and the comment posting unit 390 accumulates application programs belonging to the same genre as the application program to be posted. The heavier weight information may be added as the total usage time is longer or the total number of activations is larger.

  Alternatively, weighting based on past posting results can be performed. For example, the comment posting unit 390 has a function of storing past posting results, and when there is a past posting result for an application program belonging to the same genre as the application program to be newly posted, What is necessary is just to add heavier weight information to the comment concerning the said new posting. In this case, heavier weights are given to comments about users who have abundant posting histories about application programs of the same genre, and "heavier weights are given to highly reliable comments." It is suitable for the basic policy.

  If the user continues to use a specific application program, the usage results will gradually improve, so even if the comment is posted by the same user for the same application program, The weight information to be added differs depending on. In other words, even when comments are made by the same user, the weights assigned to the comments at the time when the usage record is low and the comments at the high time are different, but this is a reasonable operation.

<<< §7. Various modifications >>
Finally, some modifications of the various embodiments described so far will be described.

<7-1: Variations in usage results subject to reporting>
In the embodiment described so far, the usage record collection reporting unit 330 uses the log information LOG (information indicating the start and end times of each application program) as shown in FIG. An example to report to. However, the usage record collected by the usage record collection reporting unit 330 and reported to the application evaluation server 200 is not necessarily the log information LOG itself, but is some information derived based on the log information LOG. It doesn't matter.

  For example, the usage record collection / reporting unit 330 counts the number of activations and the cumulative usage time for each application program based on the log information LOG stored in the memory 360 or the file storage unit 340, and the obtained counting result is displayed. The usage record may be reported to the application evaluation server 200. In this case, the usage record storage unit 210 stores the number of activations and the accumulated usage time for the application program for each user as the usage record, not the log information LOG itself in the information processing apparatus used by each user. Therefore, the usage record totaling unit 220 may perform processing for calculating the total number of users and the average of the users for the number of times of activation and the cumulative usage time.

  The above-described modification is an example in which a part of the aggregation processing performed by the usage record totaling unit 220 in each embodiment described so far is assigned to the usage record collection reporting unit 330 in each information processing apparatus. Can do. As described above, when the usage record collection / reporting unit 330 performs a partial count and reports the result as the usage record, the total load on the use record totaling unit 220 can be reduced. However, since the detailed log information LOG indicating the start time and end time of each application program is not stored in the usage record storage unit 210, the usage record totaling unit 220 may perform detailed tabulation in consideration of the usage time zone. It becomes impossible to do.

<7-2: Modified example in which introduction information is tabulated>
The log information LOG shown in FIG. 2 is information indicating the start time and end time of each application program. Each time the application program is started or ended based on a user instruction, the program execution unit 350 is executed. It is information recorded by.

  On the other hand, the application introduction processing unit 320 downloads each application program from the application providing server 100 based on a user instruction and installs it (stores it in the file storage unit 340), or Each time an application program that has already been installed is uninstalled (deleted from the file storage unit 340), the application introduction processing unit 320 sends introduction information including installation and uninstallation information to the file storage unit 340. It can also be stored.

  For example, when a smartphone adopting an Android OS (registered trademark) is used as the information processing apparatus 300, the application program can be installed or uninstalled by the function of the OS program. Introductory information including time is automatically recorded.

  Therefore, the usage record collection / reporting unit 330 has a function of transmitting the introduction information together with the usage record to the application evaluation server 200 via the terminal-side communication unit 310 and reporting it. If the function of storing the introduction information together with the record is provided, the use record totaling unit 220 can also calculate the introduction information, and the use record presenting unit 230 can present the total result of the introduction information. become able to.

  Specifically, the usage record totaling unit 220 can total the duration of installation from the time of installation to the time of uninstallation for each application program based on the introduction information. 230, for each application program, the total user total value or the user average value or both of the installation duration time can be presented. The accumulated use time in the embodiment described so far is the accumulated time from the start of the application program to the end, whereas the installation duration in this modification example is the installation of the application program. Since the time from uninstallation to uninstallation is accumulated, the application program can be evaluated on a longer-term scale.

<7-3: Examples of specific usage results to be reported>
FIG. 28 is a diagram showing an example of specific personal information and usage results reported from the usage history collection reporting unit 330 to the application evaluation server 200 in the usage history evaluation system according to the present invention. The personal information shown in the upper part of the figure is composed of three items: gender, age, and occupation. Actually, anonymous information (see FIG. 9) for identifying the user is attached to the personal information and transmitted. On the other hand, the usage record shown in the lower part of the figure is composed of 10 items: ID, name, identification code, category, number of activations, cumulative usage time, installation date / time, uninstallation date / time, installation time, and usage time during movement. Has been. This usage record is also sent with anonymous information attached. Therefore, the usage record storage unit 210 can identify a user who is a transmission source based on anonymous information, and store personal information and usage records for each user.

  The item “ID” in the usage record shown in the lower part of FIG. 28 is a serial number for distinguishing each application program in the information processing apparatus. The item “name” is the name of the application program, and the item “identification code” is a unique identification code assigned to the application program. The item “category” indicates an application program category. In this example, three categories of “general”, “business”, and “preinstallation” are defined. The category “business” is a program developed exclusively for special business, the category “pre-installed” is a program that is already installed when the information processing device is shipped from the factory, and the category “general” is any other program. A general program is shown. Information indicating these divisions may be incorporated in advance in each application program, or may be made available by making an inquiry to an external server or the like.

  The item “startup count” and the item “cumulative use time” are literally the total values of the start count and cumulative use time so far for each application program. These usage values are calculated by the usage record collection reporting unit 330 based on the log information LOG. The item “installation date and time” and the item “uninstallation date and time” are the introduction information described in the modified example of §7-2 described above, and the date and time when each application program was introduced into the file storage unit 340 by the application introduction processing unit 320. , And the date and time deleted from the file storage unit 340. The item “installed time” indicates the time from “install date / time” to “uninstall date / time”, and is calculated by the usage record collection report unit 330. For application programs that have not been uninstalled, the “installed time” is not calculated.

  The last item “use time during movement” indicates the use time during movement in the “cumulative use time”. In order to obtain the “usage time during movement”, the position information recognition unit 385 is provided as in the embodiment described in §4, or the acceleration sensor 387 is provided as in the embodiment described in §5, and is stopped. / It is necessary to perform a process of determining another moving.

  As described above, the usage record shown in FIG. 28 is not the log information LOG itself but information derived based on the log information LOG as described in the modification of §7-1. In addition, the introduction information described in the modification of §7-2 is included. The usage record collection / reporting unit 330 uses the log information LOG and the introduction information to create such a usage record and report it to the application evaluation server 200. Since the usage results reported in this way are already information that has undergone a partial counting process, the totaling burden on the usage history totaling unit 220 is reduced.

<7-4: Report timing of usage results>
In the utilization result evaluation system according to the present invention, the utilization result collection report unit 330 reports the utilization result to the application evaluation server 200D. Here, the timing of the report will be described. Since the usage record is sequentially updated in the process of the user using the information processing apparatus, the usage record collection and reporting unit 330 basically records the usage record periodically at a predetermined timing set in advance. Just make a report. For example, a period such as one week or one month may be set and processing for periodically transmitting the latest usage record may be performed.

  If the log information LOG as shown in FIG. 2, the position information as shown in FIG. 12, and the acceleration measurement values as shown in FIG. 20 are transmitted as they are, the latest information divided in units of one week or one month. Should be sent in order. In this case, in the usage record storage unit 210, the transmitted information is sequentially stored in time series. On the other hand, as shown in the lower part of FIG. 28, when the usage record collection / reporting unit 330 performs a certain amount of aggregation and transmits the result, the latest aggregation result is transmitted at a cycle of one week or one month. do it. In this case, in the usage record storage unit 210, the old count result is rewritten with the latest count result.

  By the way, in the utilization result evaluation system according to the present invention, the benefit directly received by the user is that information as an evaluation material of the application program is presented, and the process itself of reporting the utilization result is directly directed to the user. It does not give a special benefit. Therefore, from the standpoint of a general user, it is not preferable that the information processing apparatus performs the process of reporting the usage record without permission. In particular, since portable information processing devices such as smartphones operate based on power supplied from a built-in rechargeable battery, there are not a few users who use it while paying attention to the charge capacity of the rechargeable battery.

  Therefore, when only a small amount of charge capacity remains, the user will never feel happy when the smartphone starts communication with the application evaluation server and transmits the usage record. It is natural for a user who is considering to save the charging capacity to feel uncomfortable if the smartphone starts communication at an unexpected timing and for an unintended use.

  Therefore, in practice, in the case of an information processing device that operates based on power supplied from a built-in rechargeable battery, such as a smartphone, the usage record collection report unit 330 is a period in which the charge capacity of the rechargeable battery is equal to or higher than a predetermined level. Alternatively, it is preferable to report the usage record only during the period when the charging process for the rechargeable battery is performed.

  FIG. 29 is a flowchart showing a procedure in which the usage record collection / reporting unit 330 performs the usage record reporting process under such a policy. First, in step S1, a check at the time of the final report is performed. That is, the usage record collection report unit 330 records the date and time when the final report of the usage record was made, and in step S1, the date and time of the last report is checked. In subsequent step S2, it is determined whether or not the next report time has arrived. For example, when the usage record is regularly reported at every other week, when one week has passed since the last report, it is determined that the next report has arrived. In this way, the processing of steps S1 and S2 is repeated until the next reporting time comes.

  If the next report time has arrived, the process proceeds to step S3, and it is determined whether or not the time is being charged. If not charging, the process proceeds to step S4, where the charging capacity at that time is checked, and in step S5, it is determined whether or not the charging capacity is equal to or higher than a predetermined level. Thus, if it is determined in step S3 that charging is being performed, or if charging is not being performed and it is determined in step S5 that the charging capacity is equal to or higher than the predetermined level, the process proceeds to step S6, and the usage record is obtained. The reporting process (personal information, position information, and acceleration information reporting process) is executed.

  Even if the next reporting time has arrived, if charging is not being performed and the charging capacity is low, the process returns from step S5 to step S1, and the usage record is not reported. If the usage record collection report unit 330 performs the report processing of the usage record in such a procedure, the period during which the charge capacity of the rechargeable battery is equal to or higher than a predetermined level or the period during which the rechargeable battery is charged. Since only the usage results are reported, it is possible to avoid reporting at a timing when the user feels uncomfortable.

<7-5: Selection of report target>
In the embodiments so far, the example in which the usage record collection / reporting unit 330 reports all the usage records to be reported to the application evaluation server 200 has been described. Only the usage record of the application program may be reported.

  Specifically, the usage record collection / reporting unit 330 stores only a target selection list in which application programs for which usage results are to be reported are stored, and only for application programs targeted by the target selection list. It is sufficient to report the usage results. The target selection list may be prepared in an external server or the like and referred to via the network N instead of being stored in the usage record collection / reporting unit 330. Further, as the target selection list, instead of using a list that lists application programs that are subject to usage results, a list that lists application programs that are not subject to usage results may be used.

  For example, if an application program prepared in the application providing server 100 that is to be evaluated by the use performance evaluation system according to the present invention is listed in the target selection list, the application program listed in the list Only the evaluation will be made.

  The target selection list does not necessarily include information that can directly identify individual application programs, and may include information that can be indirectly specified in some form. For example, in the usage record shown in the lower part of FIG. 28, information on the category set for each application program is described. In the target selection list, this category is used to indirectly specify the application program to be reported. It does not matter if you specify it. For example, if the target selection list includes information that “application program whose classification is“ general ”is to be reported”, in the example shown, AP1 to AP4 are to be reported, but AP5, AP6 Will be excluded from reporting. In addition, the result is the same when the information “Application programs with the category“ business ”and“ pre-installed ”are not subject to reporting” is posted.

  As in the above example, it is practically meaningful to exclude application programs whose categories are “business” and “pre-installed” from the report target. As described above, the category “business” is an application program that is not familiar to general users because it is a program developed exclusively for special business. Therefore, it is preferable to exclude it from the target to be evaluated for general users. Further, the category “preinstall” is a program distributed in a state where it is already installed at the time of factory shipment of the information processing apparatus, and is a so-called standardly installed application program. Therefore, since a general user never downloads from the application providing server 100 and uses it, it is preferable that the general user is not included in the evaluation target for the general user.

  For application programs that are preferably excluded from the evaluation target in this way, there is no need to report the usage record in the first place, so if it is excluded from the report target by the usage record collection reporting unit 330 as described above, The communication burden with the application evaluation server 200 can be reduced.

<7-6: Comments in the form of evaluation points>
In §6, an embodiment involving posting of comments has been described with reference to FIG. In this embodiment, the comment posting unit 390 posts a user comment for a specific application program, and the posted comment is presented by the comment presenting unit 260. In §6, an embodiment using information consisting of character strings as comments to be posted has been described, but the comments need not necessarily be character strings, and may be numerical values in the form of evaluation points, for example.

  That is, the comment posting unit 390 accepts the user's evaluation score for the application program as a comment, transmits the comment to the application evaluation server 200D via the terminal side communication unit 310, and the comment presenting unit 260 If an average value of evaluation points posted by a plurality of users is presented as a comment, it is possible to present a comment indicating a quantitative evaluation in the form of an evaluation point. For example, instead of inputting a comment by a character string, the user may input five grades from 1 to 5 as a comment. The comment presenting unit 260 presents a comment consisting of a numerical value instead of presenting a comment by a character string.

  Of course, when posting the evaluation score as a comment, the comment posting unit 390 refers to the usage record collected by the usage record collection reporting unit 330 for the application program to be posted, as described in §6, Posting can be performed only when the posting conditions are satisfied, or posting can be made with weight information according to the usage record. When weight information is added to each evaluation point, when the comment presenting unit 260 calculates the average value of the evaluation points, a weighted average based on this weight information may be obtained.

<7-7: Weight information addition processing on server side>
In §6, an example of posting a comment with weight information added by the comment posting unit 390 has been described with reference to FIG. 21, but the process of adding weight information to each comment is not necessarily performed by the information processing apparatus 300D side. However, it is also possible to do this on the application evaluation server 200D side. That is, the comment storage unit 250 may perform the process of adding the weight information to the comment instead of the comment posting unit 390.

  The weight information is information determined based on the usage record collected by the usage record collection / reporting unit 330. The usage record necessary for determining the weight information is obtained from the use record collection / reporting unit 330 and the use record storage unit 210. The comment storage unit 250 can perform a process of adding weight information to each posted comment based on the use record stored in the use record storage unit 210. Become.

  Of course, in order to perform the process of adding weight information to the posted comment on the application evaluation server 200D side, it is necessary to recognize the correspondence between the user related to each usage record and the user who posted each comment. However, when transmitting the usage record and comment from the information processing device 300D, if the anonymous information as shown in FIG. 9 is attached, the application evaluation server 200D can recognize the correspondence between the two. it can.

<7-8: Method for presenting counting results and comments>
In the various embodiments described so far, as a method for the usage results presenting unit 230 and the comment presenting unit 260 to present the usage results and comments, a method for causing the application evaluation server 200 to function as a Web server; A method for providing the application providing server 100 with a presentation function is illustrated.

  When the former method is adopted, the application evaluation server is allowed to have a function as a Web server, and the usage result presenting unit 230 or the comment presenting unit 260 may present the aggregation result or the comment on the Web page. . In this case, an application program having a Web browser function is stored in the file storage unit 340 in the information processing apparatus (in the case of a general information processing apparatus, a Web browser application is provided as a standard equipment. ) Then, an aggregation result or comment published on the web page by the application evaluation server may be presented on the display screen provided in the information processing apparatus by the application program having the web browser function.

  On the other hand, when the latter method is adopted, the utilization result presenting unit 230 in the application evaluation server is provided with a function of transmitting the aggregation result to be presented to the application providing server 100, and the comment presenting unit 260 is configured to The providing server 100 is provided with a function of transmitting a comment to be presented. Then, when the application providing server 100 presents a list of application programs to be downloaded to the application introduction processing unit 320, it is only necessary to present the total results and comments together.

  In this case, transmission of count results from the usage record presenting unit 230 to the application providing server 100 and transmission of comments from the comment presenting unit 260 to the application providing server 100 are performed by the application evaluation server 200 (200D) and the application providing server 100. It may be performed via a LAN or VPN for connecting to the Internet, or via the Internet N.

  Of course, the method of presenting the counting results and comments is not limited to the above method. For example, browsing of the counting results and comments is not necessarily performed by the information processing apparatus that constitutes the utilization performance evaluation system according to the present invention. In particular, when a method of publishing the counting results and comments on the Web page is adopted, it can be browsed by any device having a Web browser function. Of course, it is not always necessary to present the counting results and comments on the display screen, and presentation using a print medium is also possible. For example, the usage result presenting unit 230 or the comment presenting unit 260 may output the tabulation result or comment to the printer and present the print medium to the user by mail. .

<7-9: Modification concerning server>
In the embodiments described so far, the application providing server 100 that provides an application program to the information processing apparatus via the network N is provided, and the information processing apparatus has an application based on an instruction from the user. An application introduction processing unit 320 having a function of executing an installation process of downloading an application program desired by the user from the providing server 100 and introducing the application program into the file storage unit 340 is provided.

  However, the application providing server 100 and the application introduction processing unit 320 are not essential components for carrying out the present invention. For example, in the case of performing an operation that targets only an application program preinstalled at the time of factory shipment of the information processing apparatus, there is no need to download a new application program, so the application providing server 100 and the application introduction processing unit Even if 320 is not provided, the present invention can be implemented.

  In the embodiments described so far, the application providing server 100 and the application evaluation server 200 (200D) are shown as separate server devices. Of course, these servers are physically the same server. It doesn't matter. In this application, for convenience of explanation, a server that provides an application program is referred to as an application providing server, and a server that evaluates an application program is referred to as an application evaluation server, which is distinguished from each other. It is also possible to have both functions. Conversely, an application providing server and an application evaluation server can be configured by a plurality of physically different server devices.

<7-10: Configuration by dedicated application program>
The information processing apparatuses 300A to 300D constituting the utilization performance evaluation system according to the present invention incorporate a dedicated application program into a general electronic device such as a commercially available general-purpose personal computer, tablet-type information terminal device, or smartphone. Can be realized.

  For example, when a smartphone is used as the information processing devices 300A to 300D, the terminal side communication unit 310, the application introduction processing unit 320, the file storage unit 340, the memory 360, the program execution unit 350, and the input / output interface 370 constitute a smartphone. It can be configured by a computer and an OS program incorporated in the computer. For example, in a smartphone that employs an Android OS (registered trademark), the functions of the above constituent elements are prepared as OS functions.

  On the other hand, the usage record collection reporting unit 330 and the comment posting unit 390 may be configured by the computer, a specific application program incorporated in the computer, and a usage data file used by the specific application program. it can.

  Therefore, for example, if a smartphone that employs an Android OS (registered trademark) is used as the information processing devices 300A to 300D that constitute the usage record evaluation system according to the present invention, What is necessary is just to install the application program for exclusive use which fulfill | performs the function as the collection report part 330 or the comment contribution part 390. Thus, if the information processing apparatus necessary for the present invention is configured by incorporating a dedicated application program into a computer constituting a general-purpose general information processing apparatus, the present invention can be implemented at a relatively low cost. Is possible.

100: Application providing server 200, 200D: Application evaluation server 210: Usage result storage unit 220: Usage result collection unit 230: Usage result presentation unit 240: Server side communication unit 250: Comment storage unit 260: Comment presentation unit 300, 300A, 300B, 300C, 300D: Information processing device 310: Terminal side communication unit 320: Application introduction unit 330: Usage record collection report unit 340: File storage unit 350: Program execution unit 360: Memory 370: Input / output interface 380: Personal information storage Unit 385: Position information recognition unit 387: Acceleration sensor 390: Comment posting unit 391: Posting target selection column 392: Comment input column A to D: District AP1 to AP6: Application program C1 to C3: Comment D1 to D3: Data file OG: log information N: network (the Internet)
P: Points on the map S1 to S6: Steps in the flowchart t: Time W, W1 to W3: Weight information α: Acceleration Δ: Amplitude reference value of acceleration measurement value

Claims (41)

An information processing apparatus having an application program execution function and an application evaluation server that exchanges information with the information processing apparatus via a network, and evaluates the use record of the application program in the information processing apparatus A utilization performance evaluation system that
The information processing apparatus includes:
A terminal-side communication unit that communicates with the application evaluation server via a network;
A file storage for storing application programs and data files;
An input / output interface for inputting instructions from the user and presenting information to the user;
Memory for deploying application programs and data files;
Based on an instruction from the user, an application program to be used is read from the file storage unit and a startup process is performed to expand the program to the memory. Then, the program expanded on the memory is executed and obtained as an execution result. A program execution unit for presenting the received information to the user;
Collecting the usage record of the application program by the program execution unit, and transmitting the result to the application evaluation server via the terminal side communication unit and reporting the usage result collection report unit,
A position information recognition unit for recognizing current position information;
With
The application evaluation server
A server-side communication unit that communicates with the information processing apparatus via a network;
A usage record storage unit that stores a usage record transmitted from the information processing apparatus;
A usage record totaling unit that totals the usage records stored in the usage record storage unit;
A usage record presenting unit that presents a totaling result by the usage record totaling unit;
With
The program execution unit records log information indicating the start time and end time of each application program in the memory or the file storage unit,
The usage record collection reporting unit collects the log information or information derived based on the log information as a usage record ,
The usage record collection report unit has a function of transmitting, in addition to the usage record, the position information at each time point or information derived based on the position information to the application evaluation server,
The usage record storage unit stores the location information or information derived based on the location information in addition to the transmitted usage record,
The usage record totaling unit counts the usage record for each movement mode in consideration of the movement mode of the user estimated based on the time change of the position information. In the utilization performance evaluation system according to claim 1 ,
The usage record collection / reporting unit or the usage record totaling unit performs eligibility determination based on location information for each usage record, and excludes usage records that are determined to be ineligible from the reporting target or totaling target. Application program usage performance evaluation system. In the utilization performance evaluation system according to claim 2 ,
If the usage record collection / reporting unit or usage record totaling unit sets an inappropriate place for using the application program in advance as an ineligible place and the location information indicates the ineligible place, it is not acceptable. An application program utilization performance evaluation system characterized by performing a determination to be qualified. In the utilization performance evaluation system according to claim 2 ,
The usage record collection / reporting unit or the usage record totaling unit makes the specified time zone an ineligible time zone and rejects the inappropriate location for a location that is inappropriate for using the application program in a specific time zone. An application program utilization result evaluation system characterized in that a combination of qualified places is set, and a use result indicating use in the unqualified place is judged unqualified during the unqualified time zone. . In the utilization performance evaluation system according to claim 2 ,
If the usage record totaling unit has more than a certain number of usage records that indicate the use of the same application program at a location close to the same time zone, these usage records are disqualified. An application program utilization performance evaluation system characterized by making a determination. An information processing apparatus having an application program execution function and an application evaluation server that exchanges information with the information processing apparatus via a network, and evaluates the use record of the application program in the information processing apparatus A utilization performance evaluation system that
The information processing apparatus includes:
A terminal-side communication unit that communicates with the application evaluation server via a network;
A file storage for storing application programs and data files;
An input / output interface for inputting instructions from the user and presenting information to the user;
Memory for deploying application programs and data files;
Based on an instruction from the user, an application program to be used is read from the file storage unit and a startup process is performed to expand the program to the memory. Then, the program expanded on the memory is executed and obtained as an execution result. A program execution unit for presenting the received information to the user;
Collecting the usage record of the application program by the program execution unit, and transmitting the result to the application evaluation server via the terminal side communication unit and reporting the usage result collection report unit,
An acceleration sensor for detecting acceleration acting on the device housing;
With
The application evaluation server
A server-side communication unit that communicates with the information processing apparatus via a network;
A usage record storage unit that stores a usage record transmitted from the information processing apparatus;
A usage record totaling unit that totals the usage records stored in the usage record storage unit;
A usage record presenting unit that presents a totaling result by the usage record totaling unit;
With
The program execution unit records log information indicating the start time and end time of each application program in the memory or the file storage unit,
The usage record collection reporting unit collects the log information or information derived based on the log information as a usage record ,
The usage record collection report unit has a function of transmitting information obtained based on acceleration detection at each time point by the acceleration sensor to the application evaluation server in addition to the usage record,
The usage record storage unit stores the transmitted usage record and information obtained based on the acceleration detection,
The usage record totaling unit counts the usage record in consideration of information obtained based on the acceleration detection. In the utilization performance evaluation system according to claim 6 ,
Usage history evaluation system for application programs, wherein the usage history totaling unit counts the usage history for each movement mode in consideration of the user movement mode estimated based on the amplitude value of the acceleration detection value or the change period thereof . In the utilization performance evaluation system according to claim 7 ,
An application in which the usage result totaling unit estimates whether the user's movement mode is one of three modes of a stop state, a walking movement state, or a vehicle movement state, and totals the usage results for each of the three modes. Program usage performance evaluation system. An information processing apparatus having an application program execution function, an application providing server that provides an application program to the information processing apparatus via a network, and exchanges information with the information processing apparatus via the network An application evaluation server, and is a utilization performance evaluation system that evaluates the utilization performance of an application program in the information processing apparatus,
The information processing apparatus includes:
A terminal-side communication unit that communicates with the application evaluation server via a network;
A file storage for storing application programs and data files;
An input / output interface for inputting instructions from the user and presenting information to the user;
Memory for deploying application programs and data files;
Based on an instruction from the user, an application program to be used is read from the file storage unit and a startup process is performed to expand the program to the memory. Then, the program expanded on the memory is executed and obtained as an execution result. A program execution unit for presenting the received information to the user;
Collecting the usage record of the application program by the program execution unit, and transmitting the result to the application evaluation server via the terminal side communication unit and reporting the usage result collection report unit,
Based on an instruction from the user, an installation process for downloading a user-desired application program from the application providing server and introducing the application program into the file storage unit; an uninstallation process for deleting the stored application program from the file storage unit; An application introduction processing unit having a function of executing
With
The application evaluation server
A server-side communication unit that communicates with the information processing apparatus via a network;
A usage record storage unit that stores a usage record transmitted from the information processing apparatus;
A usage record totaling unit that totals the usage records stored in the usage record storage unit;
A usage record presenting unit that presents a totaling result by the usage record totaling unit;
With
The program execution unit records log information indicating the start time and end time of each application program in the memory or the file storage unit,
The usage record collection reporting unit collects the log information or information derived based on the log information as a usage record ,
The application introduction processing unit stores introduction information including installation and uninstallation times of individual application programs in a file storage unit,
The usage record collection reporting unit sends the introduction information to the application evaluation server via the terminal side communication unit to report,
The usage record storage unit stores the introduction information together with the usage record,
Based on the introduction information, the usage record totaling unit totals the installation duration time from the installation time to the uninstallation time for each application program,
The utilization result presenting unit presents an application program utilization result evaluation system that presents the total user total value, the user average value, or both of the installation duration time for each application program. In the utilization performance evaluation system according to claim 9 ,
The utilization result presenting unit in the application evaluation server has a function of transmitting the aggregation result to be presented to the application providing server,
The application program utilization result evaluation system, wherein the application providing server presents the totalization result together with a list of application programs to be downloaded to the application introduction processing unit. An information processing apparatus having an application program execution function and an application evaluation server that exchanges information with the information processing apparatus via a network, and evaluates the use record of the application program in the information processing apparatus A utilization performance evaluation system that
The information processing apparatus includes:
A terminal-side communication unit that communicates with the application evaluation server via a network;
A file storage for storing application programs and data files;
An input / output interface for inputting instructions from the user and presenting information to the user;
Memory for deploying application programs and data files;
Based on an instruction from the user, an application program to be used is read from the file storage unit and a startup process is performed to expand the program to the memory. Then, the program expanded on the memory is executed and obtained as an execution result. A program execution unit for presenting the received information to the user;
Collecting the usage record of the application program by the program execution unit, and transmitting the result to the application evaluation server via the terminal side communication unit and reporting the usage result collection report unit,
A comment posting unit that accepts posting of a user's comment about the application program, sends it to the application evaluation server via the terminal side communication unit, and
With
The application evaluation server
A server-side communication unit that communicates with the information processing apparatus via a network;
A usage record storage unit that stores a usage record transmitted from the information processing apparatus;
A usage record totaling unit that totals the usage records stored in the usage record storage unit;
A usage record presenting unit that presents a totaling result by the usage record totaling unit;
A comment storage unit for storing a comment transmitted from the information processing apparatus;
A comment presentation unit for presenting comments stored in the comment storage unit;
With
The program execution unit records log information indicating the start time and end time of each application program in the memory or the file storage unit,
The usage record collection reporting unit collects the log information or information derived based on the log information as a usage record ,
Each application program is associated with genre information,
The comment posting unit refers to the usage record collected by the usage record collection reporting unit for the application program to be posted, and the total accumulated usage time of application programs belonging to the same genre as the posting target application program is predetermined. If the total number of activations of application programs belonging to the same genre as the application program to be posted is equal to or greater than a predetermined reference number, or if both are satisfied An application program utilization performance evaluation system characterized in that a posting of a comment is accepted only when it is determined that a posting condition for the posting target is satisfied and the posting condition is satisfied. In the utilization performance evaluation system according to claim 11 ,
The comment posting unit accepts the user's evaluation score about the application program as a comment, sends it to the application evaluation server via the terminal side communication unit, and posts it,
An application program utilization performance evaluation system, wherein a comment presenting section presents an average value of evaluation points posted by a plurality of users as a comment. An information processing apparatus having an application program execution function and an application evaluation server that exchanges information with the information processing apparatus via a network, and evaluates the use record of the application program in the information processing apparatus A utilization performance evaluation system that
The information processing apparatus includes:
A terminal-side communication unit that communicates with the application evaluation server via a network;
A file storage for storing application programs and data files;
An input / output interface for inputting instructions from the user and presenting information to the user;
Memory for deploying application programs and data files;
Based on an instruction from the user, an application program to be used is read from the file storage unit and a startup process is performed to expand the program to the memory. Then, the program expanded on the memory is executed and obtained as an execution result. A program execution unit for presenting the received information to the user;
Collecting the usage record of the application program by the program execution unit, and transmitting the result to the application evaluation server via the terminal side communication unit and reporting the usage result collection report unit,
A comment posting unit that accepts posting of a user's comment about the application program, sends it to the application evaluation server via the terminal side communication unit, and
With
The comment posting unit adds weight information to the posted comment based on the usage record collected by the usage record collection report unit, and transmits the comment.
The application evaluation server
A server-side communication unit that communicates with the information processing apparatus via a network;
A usage record storage unit that stores a usage record transmitted from the information processing apparatus;
A usage record totaling unit that totals the usage records stored in the usage record storage unit;
A usage record presenting unit that presents a totaling result by the usage record totaling unit;
A comment storage unit for storing a comment to which the weight information transmitted from the information processing apparatus is added;
A comment presentation unit for presenting comments stored in the comment storage unit;
With
The program execution unit records log information indicating the start time and end time of each application program in the memory or the file storage unit,
The usage record collection reporting unit collects the log information or information derived based on the log information as a usage record ,
The comment presenting unit presents each comment in a manner according to the weight information,
Each application program is associated with genre information,
The comment posting unit adds heavier weight information as the total accumulated use time of application programs belonging to the same genre as the application program to be posted is longer or as the total number of activations is larger. A system for evaluating the usage of application programs. In the utilization performance evaluation system according to claim 13 ,
If the comment posting section has a function to store past posting results, and there is a past posting result for an application program that belongs to the same genre as the application program to be newly posted, the new posting An application program utilization performance evaluation system characterized in that heavier weight information is added to a comment related to the above. In the utilization performance evaluation system according to claim 13 or 14 ,
A use performance evaluation system for an application program characterized in that a comment storage unit performs processing for adding weight information to a comment instead of a comment posting unit. In the utilization performance evaluation system in any one of Claims 13-15 ,
An application program utilization performance evaluation system, wherein a comment presenter presents a plurality of comments in an order corresponding to weight information. In the utilization performance evaluation system in any one of Claims 13-16 ,
An application program utilization performance evaluation system in which a comment presenting unit displays characters constituting individual comments by changing fonts, sizes, colors, or other display modes according to weight information. In the utilization performance evaluation system in any one of Claims 1-17 ,
The usage record totaling unit counts the number of users for each application program based on the usage record.
A utilization result evaluation system for an application program, wherein a utilization result presentation unit presents the number of users for each application program. In the utilization performance evaluation system in any one of Claims 1-18 ,
Based on the usage record, the usage record totaling unit counts the number of startups for each application program,
A utilization result evaluation system for an application program, wherein a utilization result presentation unit presents the total number of users or the user average value of the number of activations or both for each application program. In the utilization performance evaluation system in any one of Claims 1-19 ,
The usage record totaling unit totals the cumulative usage time for each application program based on the usage record.
A utilization result evaluation system for an application program, wherein a utilization result presentation unit presents the total user total value, the user average value, or both of the accumulated utilization time for each application program. In the utilization performance evaluation system in any one of Claims 1-20 ,
A utilization result evaluation system for an application program, wherein a utilization result presentation unit presents a ranking of the number of users, the number of activations, or the accumulated utilization time by arranging the names of application programs in order. In the utilization performance evaluation system in any one of Claims 1-21 ,
An application program characterized in that the usage record collection / reporting unit or the usage record totaling unit performs eligibility determination on individual use results, and excludes use results that are determined to be ineligible from the reporting target or totaling target. Usage performance evaluation system. In the utilization performance evaluation system according to claim 22 ,
The usage record collection / reporting unit or the usage record totaling unit determines whether or not the application program related to the use record is eligible for a continuous start time from the start to the end of the application program related to the use record. An application program utilization performance evaluation system, characterized in that when a predetermined upper limit time is exceeded, it is determined that the application program is ineligible. In the utilization performance evaluation system according to claim 22 ,
The usage history collection / reporting unit or the usage history totaling unit determines whether or not the application program related to the usage record is used from the start to the end of the application program. An application program utilization performance evaluation system characterized in that a judgment is made that it is ineligible when it overlaps a predetermined ineligible time zone. In the utilization performance evaluation system according to claim 22 ,
The ratio of the cumulative usage time of a specific application program to the total cumulative usage time obtained by summing up the cumulative usage times of all application programs used by the same information processing device by the usage history collection report section or usage history totaling section is predetermined. When the reference ratio is exceeded, or when the ratio of the number of activation times of a specific application program to the total number of activations of all application programs used in the same information processing apparatus exceeds a predetermined reference ratio, or When both of these are satisfied, an application program use result evaluation system that makes a use result of the specific application program for the information processing apparatus ineligible is determined. In the utilization performance evaluation system in any one of Claims 1-25 ,
The information processing apparatus further includes a personal information storage unit that stores personal information of the user,
The usage record collection report unit has a function of reporting the application information to the application evaluation server in association with the personal information.
A usage record storage unit stores the usage record in association with the personal information;
A utilization result evaluation system for an application program, wherein a utilization result totaling unit totals the utilization result in consideration of the personal information. In the utilization performance evaluation system according to claim 26 ,
As personal information, use one or more information selected from the group of the user's name, address, phone number, gender, age, occupation,
A utilization result evaluation system for an application program, characterized in that a utilization result totaling unit divides users into a plurality of groups based on the personal information and totals the utilization results for each group. In the utilization performance evaluation system according to claim 26 or 27 ,
If there is an approval from the user, the usage record collection and reporting section reports the usage record associated with personal information, and if there is no consent from the user, reports the usage record without associating personal information. ,
An application program characterized in that a usage result presenting unit presents a total result with a restriction compared to a total result presented to a user who has given the consent to a user who has not made the consent. Usage performance evaluation system. In the utilization performance evaluation system according to any one of claims 26 to 28 ,
The usage record collection / reporting unit or the usage record totaling unit makes an eligibility determination based on the associated personal information for each usage record, and excludes the use result determined to be ineligible from the report target or the total target. Application program usage performance evaluation system characterized by this. In the utilization performance evaluation system according to claim 29 ,
Use personal information that includes the user's age,
The usage history collection / reporting unit or the usage history totaling unit determines whether or not the usage time period from the start to the end of the application program related to the usage history is that the specific user A use performance evaluation system for an application program, characterized in that it is determined to be ineligible when it overlaps a predetermined ineligible time zone set in advance for the age of the application program. In the utilization performance evaluation system in any one of Claims 1-25 ,
The information processing apparatus further includes a personal information storage unit that stores personal information of the user,
The usage record collection reporting unit generates anonymous information by acting a one-way function on the data indicating the personal information, and reports the application record to the application evaluation server in association with the anonymous information.
The usage record storage unit stores the usage record in association with the anonymous information,
A utilization result evaluation system for an application program, wherein a utilization result totaling unit totals the utilization result in consideration of the anonymous information. In the utilization performance evaluation system in any one of Claims 1-31 ,
A utilization result evaluation system for an application program, wherein a utilization result collection and reporting unit periodically reports a utilization result at a predetermined timing set in advance. In the utilization performance evaluation system in any one of Claims 1-32 ,
The information processing device operates based on the power supplied from the built-in rechargeable battery,
An application program characterized in that the usage record collection report unit reports the usage record only during a period when the charging capacity of the rechargeable battery is equal to or higher than a predetermined level or during a period when the charging process for the rechargeable battery is performed. Usage performance evaluation system. In the utilization performance evaluation system in any one of Claims 1-33 ,
The usage results collection and reporting section refers to the target screening list that lists the application programs that are subject to the usage results or not, and only the application programs that are targeted by the target screening list. Application program usage performance evaluation system, characterized by reporting In the utilization performance evaluation system in any one of Claims 1-34 ,
The file storage unit in the information processing apparatus stores an application program having a Web browser function,
The application evaluation server has a function as a Web server, and the usage result presenting unit or the comment presenting unit presents the aggregation result or the comment on the Web page,
An application program utilization performance evaluation system, wherein the information processing apparatus presents the tabulation results or comments to a user by an application program having the Web browser function. The information processing apparatus which comprises the utilization performance evaluation system in any one of Claims 1-35 . The program which makes a computer function as an information processing apparatus which comprises the utilization performance evaluation system in any one of Claims 1-35 . The application evaluation server which comprises the utilization performance evaluation system in any one of Claims 1-35 . The program which functions a computer as an application evaluation server which comprises the utilization performance evaluation system in any one of Claims 1-35 . In the information processing apparatus which comprises the utilization performance evaluation system in any one of Claims 1-35 ,
A terminal side communication unit, a file storage unit, a memory, a program execution unit, an input / output interface, and if necessary, an application introduction processing unit is configured by a computer and an OS program incorporated in the computer,
The usage record collection and reporting unit, and, if necessary, the comment posting unit include the computer, a specific application program incorporated in the computer, and a usage data file used by the specific application program. An information processing apparatus characterized by comprising. The specific application program according to claim 40 .

Images