JP7478961B2 - Information provision device, information provision system, information provision method, and program - Google Patents

Description

This disclosure relates to an information providing device, an information providing system, an information providing method, and a program.

Patent document 1 discloses a device that identifies the name of a dish by analyzing the characteristics of an image, records the identified dish name as history information, and recommends a dish to a user based on the history information when a request is input by the user.

JP 2012-181797 A

This disclosure provides an information providing device and the like that can accurately determine candidate dishes contained in an image.

An information providing device according to one aspect of the present disclosure includes an acquisition unit that acquires an image and browsing history information including recipe information indicating recipes for one or more dishes viewed by a user, an extraction unit that extracts dishes included in the image, a determination unit that determines one or more candidates for dishes included in the image and a priority of each of the one or more candidates based on the browsing history information, and an output unit that preferentially outputs information regarding a candidate with a higher priority among the one or more candidates based on the priority of each of the one or more candidates.

An information provision system according to one aspect of the present disclosure includes the information provision device described above and a terminal, and the terminal includes a photographing unit that photographs a dish to generate the image, and a communication unit that transmits the image to the information provision device.

An information provision method according to one aspect of the present disclosure obtains an image and browsing history information including recipe information indicating recipes for one or more dishes viewed by a user, extracts dishes included in the image, determines one or more candidates for the dishes included in the image and a priority for each of the one or more candidates based on the browsing history information, and preferentially outputs information regarding candidates with higher priority among the one or more candidates based on the priority for each of the one or more candidates.

In addition, a program according to one aspect of the present disclosure is a program for causing a computer to execute the information provision method.

These comprehensive or specific aspects may be realized by a system, a method, an integrated circuit, a computer program, or a non-transitory recording medium such as a computer-readable CD-ROM, or may be realized by any combination of a system, a method, an integrated circuit, a computer program, and a recording medium.

According to the present disclosure, it is possible to provide an information providing device etc. that can accurately determine candidate dishes contained in an image.

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an overview of an information providing system according to an embodiment. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information providing system according to an embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the process of the extraction unit according to the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a specific example of candidate information according to the embodiment. FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of the information providing device according to the embodiment. FIG. 6 is a sequence diagram showing a processing procedure of the information providing system according to the embodiment.

(Background to this disclosure)
Conventionally, there is a device that identifies the food contained in (shown in) an image by analyzing the characteristics of the image, that is, by performing image analysis. For example, when an administrator such as a registered dietitian remotely gives advice on a user's diet from the user, the user takes a picture of his or her meal and sends the image to a device used by the registered dietitian. In this case, a device that identifies the food contained in the image is used in the device used by the administrator, and the device displays the identified food name on a display device such as a display, so that the administrator can easily understand what the user has eaten. The administrator determines whether the user is eating a healthy diet, for example, by taking into account the user's attributes such as the user's sex and health condition, and provides dietary guidance to the user by notifying the user of an evaluation of the diet.

As described above, devices that perform image analysis are required to accurately identify the food contained in an image through image analysis. However, when identifying a specified food when there are other similar foods with similar characteristics, there is a problem in that the wrong food candidate is output when outputting food candidates that are the result of image analysis, such as outputting a similar food candidate instead of the specified food.

In consideration of these problems, the inventors of the present application have come up with the creation of the information providing device disclosed herein.

The following describes in detail the embodiments of the present disclosure with reference to the drawings. Note that each of the embodiments described below shows a specific example of the present disclosure. Therefore, the numerical values, shapes, materials, components, the arrangement and connection of the components, steps and the order of steps shown in the following embodiments are merely examples and are not intended to limit the present disclosure. Therefore, among the components in the following embodiments, components that are not described in the independent claims of the present disclosure are described as optional components.

The figures are schematic diagrams and are not necessarily precise illustrations. In each figure, the same components are given the same reference numerals.

(Embodiment)
[composition]
FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an overview of an information providing system 300 according to an embodiment.

The information provision system 300 is a system for identifying the food eaten by a user that is included in an image by analyzing the image. The information provision system 300 is used, for example, by an administrator who manages users to evaluate the food eaten by the user.

The information providing system 300 includes an information providing device 100 and a terminal 200.

The information providing device 100 is a computer that includes a communication interface for communicating with the terminal 200, a connector to which the notification device 320 and the input device 330 are connected, a processor that controls various processes of the information providing device 100, and a memory that stores a control program executed by the processor. In this embodiment, the information providing device 100 is a personal computer, and is operated by an administrator via the input device 330 that is realized by any user interface such as a mouse and/or a keyboard.

The terminal 200 is a computer that includes a communication interface for communicating with the information providing device 100, the notification device 320, and the input device 330, a processor that controls various processes of the terminal 200, and a memory that stores a control program executed by the processor. In this embodiment, the terminal 200 is a smartphone, and is operated by a user, for example, by operating a touch panel display provided on the terminal 200.

For example, the user photographs a dish using the terminal 200. The terminal 200 transmits an image (image information) generated by photographing the dish to the information providing device 100 via the network 310.

The information providing device 100 acquires an image including the user's meal from the terminal 200, determines candidate dishes included in the acquired image, and notifies the administrator of candidate information indicating the candidate dishes. Specifically, the information providing device 100 outputs the candidate information to the notification device 320, thereby causing the notification device 320 to notify the candidate information. Furthermore, the information providing device 100 accepts an instruction from the administrator indicating a specific candidate from among the candidate dishes, and notifies the administrator of dish information, which is information regarding the indicated candidate dish. Specifically, the information providing device 100 outputs the dish information to the notification device 320, thereby causing the notification device 320 to notify the dish information.

The notification device 320 is, for example, a display that displays the candidate information and the dish information as an image. The notification device 320 may be realized, for example, by an amplifier and a speaker that outputs the candidate information and the dish information as sound.

The information providing device 100 and the terminal 200 may each be realized as a personal computer, a tablet terminal, a smartphone, etc.

Figure 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an information provision system 300 according to an embodiment.

The information providing device 100 includes a communication unit 110, an acquisition unit 120, an extraction unit 130, a determination unit 140, an output unit 150, and a memory unit 160.

The communication unit 110 is a communication interface for communicating with the terminal 200. The communication unit 110 may be realized by a connector to which a communication line for wired communication is connected, or may be realized by an antenna and a wireless communication circuit for wireless communication.

The acquisition unit 120 is a processing unit that acquires images and browsing history information. For example, the acquisition unit 120 acquires images and browsing history information from the terminal 200 via the communication unit 110.

The browsing history information includes recipe information that indicates one or more recipes that the user has viewed.

The browsing history information may be stored in the storage unit 160. In this case, the acquisition unit 120 may acquire the browsing history information from the storage unit 160.

The extraction unit 130 is a processing unit that extracts food contained in an image. For example, the extraction unit 130 performs image analysis of the image using a method such as pattern matching to extract food (food image) that appears in the image.

Figure 3 is a diagram for explaining the processing of the extraction unit 130 according to the embodiment.

For example, suppose that the acquisition unit 120 acquires image 340. The extraction unit 130 performs image analysis of image 340 to extract food images contained in the image. In the example shown in FIG. 3, the extraction unit 130 extracts food images M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M6, and M7 from image 340. The extraction unit 130 performs image analysis of each of the extracted food images M1 to M7 to estimate the food contained in each of the food images M1 to M7. In this way, the extraction unit 130 extracts the food contained in image 340.

The determination unit 140 is a processing unit that determines one or more candidates for a dish included in an image and a priority of each of the one or more candidates based on the browsing history information. For example, the determination unit 140 calculates a degree of certainty that indicates the type of dish extracted by the extraction unit 130 is likely to be.

For example, the determination unit 140 performs image analysis or the like on the food image M5 extracted by the extraction unit 130 to determine fried chicken, fried shrimp, tempura, pork cutlet, croquette, and fried fish as candidate dishes included in the food image M5. Furthermore, the determination unit 140 performs image analysis or the like on the food image M5 to calculate the probability (likelihood) of each of the determined candidates, such as a 30% probability (likelihood) of fried chicken, a 20% probability of fried shrimp, a 30% probability of tempura, a 5% probability of pork cutlet, a 14% probability of croquette, and a 1% probability of fried fish.

The determination unit 140 further corrects the calculated accuracy using the browsing history information. For example, assume that the user has previously viewed a recipe for fried chicken, a recipe for fried shrimp, and a recipe for pork cutlet using the Internet or the like. In other words, assume that the browsing history information includes information indicating that the user has previously viewed a recipe for fried chicken, a recipe for fried shrimp, and a recipe for pork cutlet. In this case, the determination unit 140 corrects the accuracy of each of the fried chicken, fried shrimp, and pork cutlet that the extraction unit 130 has calculated as likely to be included in the cooking image M5 extracted, so that the accuracy of each of these dishes increases relatively. For example, the determination unit 140 corrects the accuracy of each of the candidate dishes to 35% for fried chicken, 25% for fried shrimp, 20% for tempura, 10% for pork cutlet, 9% for croquette, and 1% for fried fish.

Furthermore, the determination unit 140 determines the priority of the multiple food candidates based on, for example, the calculated certainty. For example, the determination unit 140 determines the priority of the multiple food candidates in descending order of the calculated certainty. For example, assuming that the lower the value, the higher the priority, the determination unit 140 determines the priority of each food candidate as follows: fried chicken has a priority of 1, fried shrimp has a priority of 2, tempura has a priority of 3, pork cutlet has a priority of 4, croquette has a priority of 5, and fried fish has a priority of 6.

As a result, the determination unit 140 generates candidate information indicating the candidate dishes extracted by the extraction unit 130 and the priority of the candidate dishes.

How the determination unit 140 determines (changes) the priority of the candidate dishes based on the browsing history information may be determined arbitrarily in advance, and is not particularly limited. For example, the determination unit 140 may correct the accuracy of the candidate dishes of recipes viewed by the user to increase by several percent, and may correct the accuracy of the candidate dishes of recipes not viewed by the user to decrease by several percent. Alternatively, for example, the determination unit 140 may correct the priority of the candidate dishes so that the priority of all the candidate dishes of recipes viewed by the user is higher than the priority of the candidate dishes of recipes not viewed by the user.

In addition, the determination unit 140 may determine the priority of each of the one or more candidates based on the browsing history information and supplementary information including at least one of attribute information indicating the attributes of the user and status information indicating the status of the user.

Additional information is information about a user. In this embodiment, the additional information is information that includes attribute information and/or status information.

The attribute information is, for example, information indicating the user's age, the user's sex, the user's physical build such as height and weight, the user's lifestyle habits indicating the amount of exercise the user does each day, the user's health condition such as whether or not the user has an illness, the area where the user lives, etc.

Status information is, for example, information that indicates the state of the user's behavior, etc., such as information indicating whether or not they ate out (more specifically, information indicating whether or not the food in the image was eaten out), the time of day (more specifically, information indicating the time of day when the food in the image was photographed, i.e., whether it was breakfast or dinner, etc.), etc.

The acquisition unit 120 acquires additional information from the terminal 200 via the communication unit 110, for example, and stores the information in the memory unit 160.

For example, when the user's attribute is male, the determination unit 140 determines the priority of the candidate dishes so that the accuracy (priority) of candidate dishes that are fried foods, such as fried chicken, is high. Also, for example, when the user's attribute information indicates that the dish included in the image was generated by photographing the dish while eating out, the determination unit 140 determines the candidate dishes so that the influence of the browsing history information on the priority is lower, that is, the degree of increase in the priority of the dish of the recipe indicated by the recipe information included in the browsing history information is smaller, compared to when the dish included in the image was not generated by photographing the dish while eating out.

For example, the determination unit 140 corrects the calculated accuracy using the browsing history information as described above. For example, assume that the user has previously viewed a recipe for fried chicken using the Internet, etc. In this case, for example, when the accuracy of fried chicken is 30% based on image analysis, the determination unit 140 corrects the accuracy of fried chicken to 35% based on the browsing history information. Here, if the incidental information includes information indicating that the dish included in the image is from eating out, the determination unit 140 corrects the accuracy of fried chicken to 33% based on the browsing history information and the incidental information when the accuracy of fried chicken is 30% based on image analysis.

For example, the acquisition unit 120 acquires the incidental information from the terminal 200 via the communication unit 110. The incidental information may be stored in the storage unit 160. In this case, the acquisition unit 120 may acquire the incidental information from the storage unit 160. The incidental information may also be linked to each image. This allows the determination unit 140 to determine, for example, based on the incidental information, whether or not the dish included in the image was generated by photographing the dish while eating out, and to determine the priority of the candidate dishes according to the determination result.

The browsing history information may also include timing information indicating the timing at which each of the one or more recipes was viewed by the user. In this case, the determination unit 140 may determine the priority of each of the one or more candidates so as to increase the priority of a candidate dish created using a recipe for a dish that was viewed by the user within a predetermined period of time from the timing at which the image was generated by the photographing unit 240 by photographing the dish.

The timing information is, for example, information indicating the date and time when the user viewed the recipe. For example, when determining the candidate dishes extracted by the extraction unit 130, if the timing when the recipe was viewed is too old compared to the timing when the dish was photographed (in other words, the timing when the image including the dish was generated), the determination unit 140 does not take the recipe into consideration when determining the priority of the candidate dishes.

The predetermined period may be determined arbitrarily in advance and is not particularly limited. Information indicating the predetermined period is stored in advance in the storage unit 160, for example.

The number of dish candidates determined by the determination unit 140 may be one, or two or more. For example, when the determination unit 140 determines one dish candidate, the determination unit 140 may correct the accuracy of the one candidate based on the browsing history information and determine the accuracy as the priority. Alternatively, the determination unit 140 may determine one candidate based on the results of image analysis, and further determine one or more other candidates different from the one candidate based on the browsing history information.

The output unit 150 is a processing unit that outputs information on a candidate having a higher priority among the one or more candidates based on the priority of each of the one or more candidates determined by the determination unit 140. The output unit 150 notifies the administrator of the candidate information by outputting the candidate information to the notification device 320, for example.

Figure 4 shows a specific example of candidate information related to the embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 4, for example, the notification device 320 displays one or more candidates as candidate information in descending order of priority. The example shown in FIG. 4 shows dish candidates that are displayed in ascending order of priority, starting with candidate 1.

Note that outputting with priority may mean, for example, displaying multiple candidates on the notification device 320 in order of priority as shown in FIG. 4, or, if the notification device 320 is a device that outputs audio, outputting the candidates by audio in order of priority from the notification device 320. Alternatively, for example, outputting with priority may mean outputting any number of candidates with high priority.

Information about the candidates is, for example, information indicating the name of the dish (dish menu) that indicates the candidate. Information about the candidates may include information indicating the priority and/or information indicating the nutrients, etc., of the candidate.

The administrator, for example, operates the input device 330 to select an appropriate candidate from one or more candidates notified by the notification device 320.

For example, the output unit 150 outputs cooking information about the selected dish. The output unit 150 notifies the administrator of the cooking information by outputting the cooking information to the notification device 320, for example.

The food information is, for example, nutritional information about the nutrients in the food. This allows the administrator to easily grasp the information necessary to provide dietary advice to the user.

The candidate information may be transmitted to the terminal 200 and notified to the user. For example, the user may operate the terminal 200 to select one candidate from one or more candidates indicated by the candidate information. The terminal 200 may transmit information indicating the selected candidate to the information providing device 100.

Also, for example, if the candidate information includes only one candidate, the notification device 320 (or the terminal 200) may notify the administrator (or the user) of the candidate and information indicating whether the candidate is correct or not.

Each of the processing units, ie, the acquisition unit 120, the extraction unit 130, the determination unit 140, and the output unit 150, is realized by a memory, a control program stored in the memory, and a processor such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) that executes the control program. These processing units may be realized by one memory and one processor, or may be realized by multiple memories and multiple processors, which may be different from each other or in any combination. These processing units may be realized by, for example, a dedicated electronic circuit, etc.

The storage unit 160 is a storage device that stores information indicating multiple dish menus (dish names) for the determination unit 140 to determine dish candidates, and information used by the information providing device 100, such as browsing history information. The storage unit 160 is realized, for example, by a hard disk drive (HDD) or a flash memory.

The information stored in the storage unit 160 may be changed at will, for example, by an administrator operating the input device 330, etc.

The terminal 200 includes a communication unit 210, a control unit 220, a memory unit 230, an image capture unit 240, an operation unit 250, and a display unit 260.

The communication unit 210 is a communication interface for communicating with the information providing device 100. In this embodiment, the communication unit 210 is realized by an antenna for wireless communication, a wireless communication circuit, etc. When the terminal 200 is, for example, a personal computer, the communication unit 210 may be realized by a connector to which a communication line for wired communication is connected, etc.

The control unit 220 is a processing unit that performs various processes executed by the terminal 200. The control unit 220 is realized, for example, by a memory, a control program stored in the memory, and a processor such as a CPU that executes the control program.

The memory unit 230 is a storage device that stores information used by the terminal 200. The memory unit 230 is realized, for example, by a HDD or a flash memory.

The photographing unit 240 is a camera that photographs a dish to generate an image including the dish. The control unit 220 transmits the image generated by the photographing unit 240 to the information providing device 100 via the communication unit 210.

The control unit 220 may store the image in the storage unit 230, for example, by linking the image to date and time information indicating the date and time when the image was generated. The control unit 220 may also transmit multiple images to the information providing device 100 via the communication unit 210 together with the date and time information linked to each image, as well as user information including user name information uniquely indicating the user, such as the user's name, and additional information related to the user.

The operation unit 250 is a user interface that accepts user operations. For example, when the operation unit 250 accepts an input to operate the photographing unit 240, the control unit 220 causes the photographing unit 240 to photograph the food. Also, for example, when the operation unit 250 accepts user information, the control unit 220 stores the user information in the storage unit 230 or transmits the user information to the information providing device 100 via the communication unit 210. Also, for example, when the user browses a cooking recipe using the Internet or the like, the control unit 220 stores browsing history information in the storage unit 230 or transmits the browsing history information to the information providing device 100 via the communication unit 210. In this embodiment, the operation unit 250 is realized as a touch panel display together with the display unit 260.

The display unit 260 is a display that displays images. The administrator, for example, checks the cooking information and provides dietary advice to the user. Specifically, for example, the administrator operates the input device 330 to create notification information indicating the quality of the user's meal or areas for improvement, and causes the information providing device 100 to transmit the notification information to the terminal 200. When the control unit 220 acquires the notification information via the communication unit 210, it causes the display unit 260 to display the notification information.

The operation unit 250 and the display unit 260 may be realized as separate entities, such as the notification device 320 and the input device 330.

For example, the information providing device 100 may evaluate the food included in the image based on the food information and the additional information, and transmit the evaluation result to the terminal 200 as notification information.

[Processing Procedure]
Next, a process performed by the information providing device 100 and the information providing system 300 will be described.

<Information Providing Device>
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the information providing device 100 according to the embodiment.

First, the acquisition unit 120 acquires, for example, an image and browsing history information including recipe information (S110). The acquisition unit 120 acquires, for example, the image and browsing history information from the terminal 200 via the communication unit 110.

For example, if images and browsing history information are stored in the storage unit 160, the acquisition unit 120 may acquire the images and browsing history information from the storage unit 160.

Next, the extraction unit 130 extracts the food contained in the image (S120).

Next, the determination unit 140 determines one or more candidate dishes extracted by the extraction unit 130 and the priority of each of the one or more candidates based on the browsing history information (S130).

Next, the output unit 150 outputs information about a candidate with a higher priority among the one or more candidates determined by the determination unit 140 (S140).

<Information provision system>
Fig. 6 is a sequence diagram showing a processing procedure of the information providing system 300 according to the embodiment. Note that, in the processing procedure of the information providing device 100 shown in Fig. 6, a specific example is added and/or modified from the processing procedure of the information providing device 100 shown in Fig. 5.

First, the terminal 200 acquires additional information, for example, by receiving a user's input via the operation unit 250 (S210). For example, the control unit 220 stores the additional information received via the operation unit 250 in the storage unit 230.

Next, the terminal 200 acquires browsing history information, for example, by receiving a user input via the operation unit 250 (S220). For example, the control unit 220 stores the browsing history information received via the operation unit 250 in the storage unit 230.

Next, the terminal 200 generates an image including the food by photographing the food in response to a user's operation (S230). For example, the control unit 220 stores the image generated by the photographing unit 240 in the storage unit 230.

Next, when the terminal 200 receives an instruction from the user to transmit information such as an image, it transmits the image, browsing history information, and additional information to the information providing device 100 (S240).

The terminal 200 may transmit the image, the browsing history information, and the additional information to the information providing device 100 at different times.

The acquisition unit 120 acquires, for example, an image, browsing history information, and additional information from the terminal 200 via the communication unit 110 (S111).

Next, the extraction unit 130 extracts the food contained in the image (S120).

Next, the determination unit 140 determines one or more candidates for the dishes extracted by the extraction unit 130 and the priority of each of the one or more candidates based on the browsing history information and the additional information (S131).

Next, the output unit 150 outputs information about a candidate with a higher priority among the one or more candidates determined by the determination unit 140 (S140).

Next, for example, the information providing device 100 generates notification information by receiving input from the administrator via the input device 330 (S150).

Next, for example, the information providing device 100 transmits the generated notification information to the terminal 200 (S160).

Next, when the control unit 220 receives notification information from the information providing device 100 via the communication unit 210, it causes the display unit 260 to display the notification information (S250).

[Effects, etc.]
As described above, the information providing device 100 according to the embodiment includes an acquisition unit 120 that acquires an image and browsing history information including recipe information indicating recipes for one or more dishes viewed by the user, an extraction unit 130 that extracts dishes included in the image, a determination unit 140 that determines one or more candidates for the dishes included in the image and a priority of each of the one or more candidates based on the browsing history information, and an output unit 150 that preferentially outputs information regarding a candidate with a higher priority among the one or more candidates based on the priority of each of the one or more candidates.

This allows the priority of candidates to be determined based on recipe information, not just image analysis results. Therefore, the user's past behavior can be reflected in determining the priority of candidate dishes, not just based on appearance as can be seen from the image. This allows the candidate dishes contained in the image to be determined with high accuracy.

For example, the acquisition unit 120 further acquires supplementary information including at least one of attribute information indicating the attributes of the user and status information indicating the status of the user. For example, the determination unit 140 determines the priority of each of the one or more candidates based on the browsing history information and the attribute information.

This allows the priority of the candidates to be determined further based on the accompanying information. Therefore, in addition to judging based on appearance as can be seen from the image, the accompanying information, i.e., the characteristics and/or personality of the user, can be reflected in determining the priority of the candidate dishes. This allows the candidate dishes included in the image to be determined with even greater accuracy.

For example, the browsing history information also includes timing information indicating the timing at which each of the one or more recipes was viewed by the user. For example, the determination unit 140 determines the priority of each of the one or more candidates so as to increase the priority of a candidate dish created using a recipe for a dish viewed by the user within a predetermined period from the timing at which the photographing unit 240 generated an image by photographing the dish.

By appropriately setting the specified period, it is possible to appropriately eliminate recipe information that may not have much influence on determining the priority of the candidate dishes, such as a recipe for a dish that was viewed by the user a very long time ago relative to the timing when the dish was photographed. In other words, by using timing information, recipe information that may have a large influence on determining the priority of the candidate dishes can be appropriately selected and the priority determined. This makes it possible to more accurately determine the candidate dishes included in the image.

The information provision system 300 according to the embodiment includes an information provision device 100 and a terminal 200, and the terminal 200 includes a photographing unit 240 that generates an image by photographing a dish, and a communication unit 210 that transmits the image to the information provision device 100.

In addition, the information provision method according to the embodiment acquires an image and browsing history information including recipe information showing recipes for one or more dishes viewed by the user (S110), extracts dishes included in the image (S120), determines one or more candidates for the dishes included in the image and a priority for each of the one or more candidates based on the browsing history information (S130), and preferentially outputs information relating to candidates with higher priority among the one or more candidates based on the priority for each of the one or more candidates (S140).

The program according to the embodiment is a program for causing a computer to execute the information provision method according to the embodiment.

These provide the same effects as the information providing device 100.

(Other embodiments)
While the information providing device and the like according to the present disclosure have been described above based on the embodiments, the present disclosure is not limited to the above-described embodiments.

For example, the information provision system 300 may be realized by multiple devices, or may be realized by a single device. Specifically, in the above embodiment, an example has been shown in which the information provision system 300 includes the information provision device 100 and the terminal 200, but the information provision system according to the present disclosure may be realized as a single device such as an information terminal, or may be realized by multiple devices. For example, the information provision system may be realized as a client-server system. When the information provision system is realized by multiple devices, the components of the information provision system described in the above embodiment may be distributed in any manner among the multiple devices.

For example, in the above embodiment, the processing performed by a specific processing unit may be executed by another processing unit. Also, the order of multiple processes may be changed, or multiple processes may be executed in parallel.

In addition, for example, in the above embodiment, all or part of the components of the processing units such as the acquisition unit 120 and extraction unit 130 provided in the information providing device 100 may be configured with dedicated hardware, or may be realized by executing a software program suitable for each component. Each component may be realized by a program execution unit such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) or a processor reading and executing a software program recorded on a recording medium such as a HDD or semiconductor memory.

Furthermore, for example, the components of the processing unit may be composed of one or more electronic circuits. Each of the one or more electronic circuits may be a general-purpose circuit or a dedicated circuit.

The one or more electronic circuits may include, for example, a semiconductor device, an integrated circuit (IC), or a large scale integration (LSI). The IC or LSI may be integrated into one chip or into multiple chips. Here, we refer to it as an IC or an LSI, but depending on the degree of integration, it may be called a system LSI, a very large scale integration (VLSI), or an ultra large scale integration (ULSI). Also, a field programmable gate array (FPGA) that is programmed after the LSI is manufactured can be used for the same purpose.

The general or specific aspects of the present disclosure may be realized as a system, an apparatus, a method, an integrated circuit, or a computer program. Alternatively, the invention may be realized as a computer-readable non-transitory recording medium, such as an optical disk, a HDD, or a semiconductor memory, on which the computer program is stored. The invention may also be realized as any combination of a system, an apparatus, a method, an integrated circuit, a computer program, and a recording medium.

In addition, various modifications conceivable by those skilled in the art to this embodiment and configurations constructed by combining components of different embodiments are also included within the scope of this disclosure, so long as they do not deviate from the spirit of this disclosure.

This disclosure can be applied to computers and other devices that communicate with terminals.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 Information providing device 110, 210 Communication unit 120 Acquisition unit 130 Extraction unit 140 Determination unit 150 Output unit 160, 230 Storage unit 200 Terminal 220 Control unit 240 Photography unit 250 Operation unit 260 Display unit 300 Information providing system 310 Network 320 Notification device 330 Input device 340 Image M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M6, M7 Cooking image

Claims (6)

an acquisition unit that acquires images and browsing history information including recipe information indicating one or more recipes of dishes that the user has browsed;
An extraction unit that extracts a dish included in the image;
A determination unit that determines one or more candidates for a dish included in the image and a priority of each of the one or more candidates based on the browsing history information;
an output unit that outputs information relating to a candidate with a high priority among the one or more candidates based on a priority of each of the one or more candidates. The acquisition unit further acquires supplementary information including at least one of attribute information indicating an attribute of the user and status information indicating a status of the user;
The information providing device according to claim 1 , wherein the determining unit determines a priority of each of the one or more candidates based on the browsing history information and the additional information. The browsing history information includes timing information indicating a time when each of the one or more recipes was viewed by the user,
The information providing device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the determination unit determines a priority of each of the one or more candidates so as to increase the priority of a candidate dish that is created using a recipe for a dish that the user has viewed within a predetermined period of time from the time when the image was generated by a photographing unit of the dish, among the one or more candidates. An information providing device according to any one of claims 1 to 3;
A terminal,
The terminal includes:
An image capturing unit that captures an image of a dish to generate the image;
a communication unit for transmitting the image to the information providing device. The computer
Acquire the image and browsing history information including recipe information indicating one or more recipes of dishes browsed by the user;
Extracting the food contained in the image;
determining one or more candidates for a dish included in the image and a priority of each of the one or more candidates based on the browsing history information;
an information providing method for preferentially outputting information about a candidate having a higher priority among the one or more candidates based on a priority of each of the one or more candidates. A program for causing a computer to execute the information providing method according to claim 5.

Images