JP7647279B2 - Information providing device, system and method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an information providing device, system, and method.

In recent years, with the widespread use of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet devices, SNS (Social Networking Services) are being used frequently. Information posted on SNS is used, for example, in navigation systems that provide route information and systems that provide destination information.

Technology has been disclosed relating to a navigation service that provides users with the degree of congestion at a destination based on information posted on a social networking site. For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses technology that provides users with information about changes in the degree of congestion at a facility at a destination.

JP 2020-177418 A

The technology disclosed in Patent Document 1 can grasp the degree of congestion at a destination over time, but cannot grasp detailed conditions, such as what attributes of people are most prevalent. In addition, some facilities distribute information such as the degree of congestion via the web, but the distributed information often differs from the actual situation, for example, with large time lags. For example, even in facilities that are popular with families, depending on the time of day or events, there may be many couples and it may not be appropriate for families to visit.

In view of the above, the present disclosure aims to provide an information providing device, system, and method that can provide guidance on appropriate visiting times at a specified location according to user attributes set.

The information providing device of the present invention includes a video selection unit that selects a video related to a pre-specified location from among videos distributed over a network, a person detection unit that detects people included in the selected video, an attribute estimation unit that estimates attributes of the detected people, and an attribute tendency determination unit that determines attribute tendencies for each time period related to people visiting the specified location based on the estimated person attributes and pre-specified user attributes.

The information provision system of the present invention includes an image selection means for selecting an image related to a pre-specified location from images distributed over a network, a person detection means for detecting a person included in the selected image, an attribute estimation means for estimating attributes of the detected person, and an attribute tendency determination means for determining attribute tendencies for each time period related to people visiting the specified location based on the estimated person attributes and pre-specified user attributes.

The information provision method of the present invention includes the steps of selecting an image related to a pre-specified location from among images distributed over a network, detecting a person included in the selected image, estimating attributes of the detected person, and determining attribute trends for each time period related to people visiting the specified location based on the estimated attributes of the person and pre-specified user attributes.

The information providing device and method of the present invention can provide guidance on appropriate visiting times at a specified location according to the set user attributes.

1 is a configuration diagram of an information providing device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of guidance on an appropriate visiting time period at a specified location according to the first embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a flow diagram of a process performed by the information providing device according to the first embodiment of the present invention to provide information about an appropriate visiting time period at a specified location. FIG. 11 is a configuration diagram of an information providing system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

The following describes the embodiments with reference to the drawings. Note that the drawings are simplified, and the technical scope of the embodiments should not be interpreted narrowly based on the descriptions in the drawings. Also, the same elements are given the same reference numerals, and duplicate explanations will be omitted.

In the following embodiments, when necessary for convenience, they will be divided into multiple sections or embodiments for explanation. However, unless otherwise specified, they are not unrelated to each other, and one is a partial or complete modification, application example, detailed explanation, supplementary explanation, etc. of the other. Furthermore, in the following embodiments, when the number of elements, etc. (including the number, numerical value, amount, range, etc.) is mentioned, it is not limited to that specific number, and may be more or less than the specific number, except when otherwise specified or when it is clearly limited in principle to a specific number.

Furthermore, in the following embodiments, the components (including operational steps, etc.) are not necessarily essential unless otherwise specified or considered to be clearly essential in principle. Similarly, in the following embodiments, when referring to the shape, positional relationship, etc. of components, etc., it is intended to include things that are substantially similar or approximate to the shape, etc., unless otherwise specified or considered to be clearly not essential in principle. The same applies to the above numbers, etc. (including numbers, numerical values, amounts, ranges, etc.).

<Embodiment 1>
The configuration of the information providing device 10 in this embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 1. Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of the information providing device 10 in this embodiment.

The information providing device 10 can communicate with the SNS server 20. The SNS server 20 may be a server provided on a network capable of communicating with the information providing device 10, or may be a server of the official website of each facility. In addition, the SNS server 20 may be one or more.

The information providing device 10 includes an input unit 11, a location designation unit 12, a user attribute acquisition unit 13, an image selection unit 14, a person detection unit 15, an attribute estimation unit 16, an attribute tendency determination unit 17, and a guidance processing unit 18.

The information providing device 10 may be configured as a navigation device that provides a destination and a travel route to a user. The information providing device 10 may be a single server, or may use multiple servers to distribute the functions of each unit.

The input unit 11 issues operational instructions to the location designation unit 12 and the user attribute acquisition unit 13. The operational instructions may be given by character input using a keyboard, a touch panel, or the like, or by voice input using a microphone, or the like.

The point designation unit 12 designates a point based on information input by the user from the input unit 11. The input information may be various information such as latitude and longitude information of the destination point and the name of a facility. The information providing device 10 may also be provided with a map DB (not shown) that contains map data. At this time, the designated point may be configured to be selected on the map.

The user attribute acquisition unit 13 specifies the user's attributes based on the information input by the user from the input unit 11. The attributes may be various attributes, such as, but not limited to, a single person, a family with children, a couple, a group of men and women, a group of men and a group of women, etc. The attributes may be specified by inputting them each time from the input unit 11, or by registering them in advance. When registering them in advance, the information providing device 10 may be provided with a storage unit (not shown), and the user's attributes may be registered in the storage unit.

The video selection unit 14 searches and selects from the SNS server 20 videos that have location information that matches or is similar to the location previously specified by the location designation unit 12, from among videos that have been distributed via the network and that have location information such as information on location names and facility names, and latitude and longitude, etc., added as tag information, for example. When the video contains latitude and longitude information, the video selection unit 14 searches and selects videos that show latitude and longitude information within a specified range from the latitude and longitude of the specified location. The "within the specified range" may be set arbitrarily depending on the attributes of the specified location, such as within 100 m from the specified location.

The video selection unit 14 selects, from the selected videos, video of a predetermined period from the time the location was specified. The video of a predetermined period may be set arbitrarily according to the attributes of the specified location, such as within one hour from the time of specification, during the day, within one week, etc. Furthermore, the selected video may be a still image or a moving image.

The video selected by the video selection unit 14 may be, for example, selected from news content, blogs, etc. provided on the official website of each facility. The video selected by the video selection unit 14 may also be based on real-time video from a fixed camera or the like connected to the network. In other words, the SNS server 20 may be a server provided in each facility, or a server that distributes video from a fixed camera. Note that the SNS information targeted in this embodiment preferably targets a large amount of searchable information.

The person detection unit 15 detects people included in the video selected by the video selection unit 14. When multiple people are included in the video, the person detection unit 15 may detect the multiple people. Of the videos selected by the video selection unit 14, videos that do not include people may be excluded from targets for person attribute estimation in the processing of the attribute estimation unit 16 described below, based on the detection result of the person detection unit 15.

The attribute estimation unit 16 estimates the attributes of the person detected by the person detection unit 15. The attribute estimation estimates the attributes of a single person or multiple people detected by the person detection unit 15. The attribute estimation may be performed by using artificial intelligence that has learned various states of people (for example, gender such as male or female, age such as child, young, old, etc.) to estimate the attributes of the person from the features of the image of the person detected by the person detection unit 14. The attribute estimation unit 16 may estimate the attributes of the detected individual person and may also estimate the attributes of the organization to which the detected person belongs. The attribute estimation unit 16 may estimate the attributes of the organization, such as whether the person is a single person, a couple, or an organization, based on, for example, the distance between each person, whether they are talking, their line of sight, the direction of their face, etc. The attributes may be various attributes, such as gender such as male or female, age such as child, young, old, etc. In addition, the attributes of the organization to which the person belongs may be various organizations, such as a single person, a family with children, a couple, a group of men and women, a group of men, and a group of women.

The attribute tendency determination unit 17 determines the attribute tendency for each time period of people visiting the specified location based on the person attributes estimated by the attribute estimation unit 16 from multiple videos. That is, the attribute tendency determination unit 17 determines the attribute tendency using the ratio of the person's attributes detected from the video. The person attribute tendency may be various tendencies, such as many families, many couples, many young couples, many groups, etc. The attribute tendency determination unit 17 may learn the attribute tendency of people at the specified location using artificial intelligence and accumulate attribute tendency information for each time period at the specified location.

The guidance processing unit 18 is a notification unit that notifies the user of the time to visit a specified location based on the attribute tendency determined by the attribute tendency determination unit 17 and the user attribute previously set by the user. For example, assume that the previously set user attribute is "family" and the guidance processing unit 18 determines that the user should "visit" when family exceeds 50%. Also assume that the attribute tendencies of people visiting the specified location are 60%, 30%, and 10% for family, young couple, and others, respectively. In this case, the guidance processing unit 18 determines that the user should "visit" the specified location.

The time to visit notified by the guidance processing unit 18 may be various times, such as a specific time period or a season. The notification by the guidance processing unit 18 may be in the form of displaying the current position on a map and the attribute tendency at the destination on the screen. In this case, the current position may be obtained using a positioning system such as GPS (Global Positioning System). An example of a notification of the attribute tendency is shown in FIG. 2, but the notification method is not limited to this.

For example, if the user is a family with children, the guidance processing unit 18 may provide guidance on time periods when there are many families with children, or time periods that avoid time periods when there are many couples or groups. In this case, the guidance provided by the guidance processing unit 18 may be in various forms, such as text information such as "There are many families with children during this time period," or "It is predicted that there will be many couples today, but from tomorrow onwards there will be many families with children."

The guidance processing unit 18 may also have a function of outputting voice information. In this case, the guidance processing unit 18 may create voice information notifying the user of the visiting time period based on the user's attributes and the information indicating the tendency determined by the attribute tendency determination unit 17. Furthermore, the guidance processing unit 18 may calculate the expected time required to reach the specified location, and may also provide information on the departure schedule for arriving at the specified location at an appropriate time period.

Here, the flow of the process performed by the information providing device 10 will be described with reference to FIG. 3. FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of the process performed by the information providing device 10 in this embodiment to notify the user of an appropriate visiting time period at a specified location.

First, the user attribute acquisition unit 13 specifies the user's attributes based on the information input by the user from the input unit 11 (step 101). The location designation unit 12 specifies a location based on the information input by the user from the input unit 11 (step 102). The video selection unit 14 selects a video of a predetermined period of the location designated by the location designation unit 12 from the SNS server 20 (step 103). The person detection unit 15 detects a person included in the video selected by the video selection unit 14 (step 104). The attribute estimation unit 16 estimates the attributes of the person detected by the person detection unit 15 at the designated location (step 105). The attribute tendency determination unit 17 determines the attribute tendency for each time period regarding the person visiting the designated location based on the person's attributes estimated by the attribute estimation unit 16 from multiple videos and the user attributes previously set by the user (step 106). The guidance processing unit 18 notifies the user of the time to visit the designated location based on the attribute tendency determined by the attribute tendency determination unit 17 (step 107).

As described above, the information providing device 10 in this embodiment acquires still images and video images for a predetermined period related to a location specified by the user from the SNS server 20. The person detection unit 15 detects people from the acquired still images and video images, and the attribute estimation unit 16 estimates the attributes of the people. The guidance processing unit 18 guides the user to appropriate visiting times based on the user's preset attributes and the estimated person attributes.

Therefore, the information providing device 10 can provide information on visiting times appropriate to the user attributes set at the specified location. For example, if the user is a family with children, the information providing device 10 can provide information on times when there are many families with children, or times that avoid times when there are many couples or groups.

<Embodiment 2>
The configuration of the information providing system 1 in this embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 4. Fig. 4 is a configuration diagram of the information providing system 1 according to this embodiment. The information providing system 1 includes a processing device 10a, a terminal device 10b, and an SNS server 20. The processing device 10a and the terminal device 10b are capable of communicating with each other. The processing device 10a and the SNS server 20 are also capable of communicating with each other.

The terminal device 10b includes an input unit 11, a location designation unit 12, a user attribute acquisition unit 13, and a guidance processing unit 18. The processing device 10a includes a video selection unit 14, a person detection unit 15, an attribute estimation unit 16, and an attribute tendency determination unit 17. The functions of each unit are the same as those in the first embodiment, so detailed explanations are omitted. The processing device 10a may be an information providing device such as a server owned by a commercial facility or a business entity. The terminal device 10b may be, for example, a communication terminal such as a smartphone used by a user, but is not limited to this and may be various terminal devices.

According to the information provision system 1 of this embodiment, the user can use the terminal device 10b to obtain information such as the visiting time period and the congestion level at that time that is appropriate for the user attributes set at a specified location, regardless of time or place.

<Other embodiments>
The information providing device 10 of the present invention has an embodiment as an information providing method, for example. That is, the information providing method includes a step of selecting a video related to a pre-specified location from videos distributed through a network, a step of detecting a person included in the selected video, a step of estimating attributes of the detected person, and a step of determining attribute trends for each time period related to people visiting the specified location based on the estimated attributes of the person and a pre-specified user attribute.

The above describes in detail the embodiments of the present disclosure with reference to the drawings, but the specific configuration is not limited to the above, and various design changes are possible without departing from the spirit of the present disclosure.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 Information providing system 10 Information providing device 11 Input unit 12 Location designation unit 13 User attribute acquisition unit 14 Video selection unit 15 Person detection unit 16 Attribute estimation unit 17 Attribute tendency determination unit 18 Guidance processing unit 20 SNS server

Claims (5)

a video selection unit that selects a video relating to a pre-specified location from among videos distributed through a network;
a person detection unit that detects a person included in the selected video;
an attribute estimation unit that estimates attributes of the detected person;
an attribute tendency determination unit that determines an attribute tendency for each time period regarding a person who visits the specified location based on the estimated attribute of the person;
a guidance processing unit that notifies the user of a time when the designated location should be visited based on the determined attribute tendency and a preset user attribute;
An information providing device comprising: The guidance processing unit is
notifying the user of the time to visit the specified location by using text information or voice information based on the attribute tendency determined by the attribute tendency determination unit;
2. The information providing device according to claim 1. The guidance processing unit calculates an expected time required to reach the specified location.
3. The information providing device according to claim 1 or 2. an image selection means for selecting an image relating to a pre-specified location from among images distributed through a network;
a person detection means for detecting a person included in the selected video;
An attribute estimation means for estimating an attribute of the detected person;
an attribute tendency determining means for determining an attribute tendency for each time period regarding a person visiting the specified location based on the estimated attribute of the person;
a guidance processing means for notifying a user of a time when the user should visit the designated location based on the determined attribute tendency and a preset user attribute;
An information provision system equipped with: selecting an image relating to a pre-specified location from among images distributed via a network;
detecting a person included in the selected video;
estimating attributes of the detected person;
determining attribute trends for each time period regarding people visiting the specified location based on the estimated attributes of the people;
notifying the user of a time to visit the specified location based on the determined attribute tendency and a preset user attribute;
A method of providing information that includes the following:

Images