Terminal device and method

Abstract

To improve a technique of proposing a spot to a user.SOLUTION: A terminal device 10 comprises: a storage unit 14 which stores taste information of a user; a display unit 12; and a control unit 15. The control unit 15 specifies an image selected by the user as an object image, and causes the display unit 12 to display one spot image for which it is determined that the image is similar to the object image by similar image retrieval from a plurality of spot images associated with a candidate spot as a representative image of the candidate spot for each candidate spot selected on the basis of the taste information from the plurality of spots.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a terminal device and method. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventionally, there is known a technique for suggesting spots such as facilities or tourist spots to a user. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for presenting tourist spot candidates having common tag information to a user based on tag information of image data selected by the user and condition information of a travel plan. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Patent Publication No. 2021-056801 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] There is room for improvement in the technology of suggesting spots to users. For example, in the conventional technology, the user needs to input the condition information of the travel plan, so it is not possible to present tourist spot candidates to a user who has not decided on a specific travel plan. In addition, in the method of selecting tourist spot candidates based only on the match / mismatch of tag information, it is not always possible to select tourist spot candidates that have the same scenery as the image data selected by the user because the user liked the scenery.

[0005] In view of the above circumstances, an object of the present disclosure is to improve the technology for suggesting spots to users. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] A terminal device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes: The device includes a storage unit that stores user preference information, a display unit, and a control unit, The control unit is Identifying the image selected by the user as a target image; For each candidate spot selected from a plurality of spots based on the preference information, one spot image determined to be similar to the target image by similar image search from among a plurality of spot images associated with the candidate spot is displayed on the display unit as a representative image of the candidate spot.

[0007] According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the method comprises: A method executed by a terminal device including a storage unit that stores user preference information, a display unit, and a control unit, comprising: The control unit: identifying an image selected by a user as a target image; and For each candidate spot selected from a plurality of spots based on the preference information, one spot image determined to be similar to the target image by a similar image search from a plurality of spot images associated with the candidate spot is displayed on the display unit as a representative image of the candidate spot. Effect of the Invention

[0008] According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a technique for suggesting spots to a user is improved. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Diagram 2] FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of information stored in a server. [Diagram 3] FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram showing the operation of the system. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0010] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described.

[0011] (Overview of the embodiment) An overview of a system 1 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to Fig. 1. The system 1 includes a terminal device 10 and a server 20. The terminal device 10 and the server 20 are capable of communicating with each other via a network 30 including, for example, the Internet and a mobile communication network.

[0012] The terminal device 10 is, for example, a general-purpose computer such as a PC (Personal Computer), a smartphone, or a tablet terminal, or a computer dedicated to the system 1. The system 1 may include any number of terminal devices 10. The server 20 is configured to include one or more computers capable of communicating with each other. As will be described later, in this embodiment, the server 20 stores information on a plurality of spots (facilities, tourist spots, etc.). The terminal device 10 can display the information on the spots received from the server 20.

[0013] First, an overview of this embodiment will be described, and details will be described later. The terminal device 10 specifies an image selected by a user as a target image. Then, for each candidate spot selected from a plurality of spots based on the user's preference information, the terminal device 10 displays one spot image determined to be similar to the target image by similar image search from among a plurality of spot images associated with the candidate spot as a representative image of the candidate spot.

[0014] Conventionally, as a method of presenting information of an object (e.g., a spot or a product, etc.) to a user using a computer, a method is generally adopted in which a predetermined representative image of the object is displayed on a screen, and when the representative image is selected by the user, the screen is switched to display detailed information of the object (e.g., an explanatory text and multiple images of the object, etc.). In order to present information of the object to the user, it is desirable to display a representative image that attracts the user's interest. In contrast, according to the present embodiment, among multiple spot images associated with candidate spots selected according to the user's preferences, a spot image similar to the target image selected by the user is displayed as a representative image. Therefore, for example, when a user selects an image of a landscape that he or she likes, a candidate spot that matches the user's preferences can be displayed with a representative image similar to the landscape. Therefore, the technology of suggesting spots to a user is improved in that it is possible to display candidate spots with a representative image that is likely to be visually liked by the user.

[0015] Next, each component of the system 1 will be described in detail.

[0016] (Terminal Device Configuration) As shown in FIG. 1, the terminal device 10 includes a communication unit 11, a display unit 12, an operation unit 13, a storage unit 14, and a control unit 15.

[0017] The communication unit 11 includes one or more communication interfaces that connect to the network 30. The communication interfaces correspond to mobile communication standards such as 4G (4th Generation) and 5G (5th Generation), but are not limited thereto, and may correspond to any communication standard.

[0018] The display unit 12 includes one or more displays, or may include an interface to which an external display can be connected.

[0019] The operation unit 13 may include one or more input devices that detect user operations. The input devices may be, but are not limited to, physical keys, capacitive keys, a touch screen that is integrated with a display, a microphone that accepts voice input, or a camera. Alternatively, the operation unit 13 may include an interface that allows an external input device to be connected.

[0020] The storage unit 14 includes one or more memories. In this embodiment, the "memory" is, for example, a semiconductor memory, a magnetic memory, an optical memory, or the like, but is not limited to these. Each memory included in the storage unit 14 may function as, for example, a main memory device, an auxiliary memory device, or a cache memory. The storage unit 14 stores any information used in the operation of the terminal device 10. For example, the storage unit 14 may store a system program, an application program, and the like.

[0021] The control unit 15 includes one or more processors, one or more programmable circuits, one or more dedicated circuits, or a combination of these. The processor is, for example, but is not limited to, a general-purpose processor such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) or a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), or a dedicated processor specialized for a specific process. The programmable circuit is, for example, but is not limited to, an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array). The dedicated circuit is, for example, but is not limited to, an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit). The control unit 15 controls the operation of the entire terminal device 10.

[0022] (Server configuration) As shown in FIG. 1, the server 20 includes a communication unit 21, a storage unit 22, and a control unit .

[0023] The communication unit 21 includes one or more communication interfaces that connect to the network 30. The communication interface corresponds to, for example, a mobile communication standard, a wired LAN (Local Area Network) standard, or a wireless LAN standard, but is not limited to these and may correspond to any communication standard.

[0024] The storage unit 22 includes one or more memories. Each memory included in the storage unit 22 may function as, for example, a main storage device, an auxiliary storage device, or a cache memory. The storage unit 22 stores any information used in the operation of the server 20. For example, the storage unit 22 may store a system program, an application program, embedded software, a database, and the like.

[0025] In this embodiment, the storage unit 22 stores information about a plurality of spots. Hereinafter, the spots about which information is stored in the storage unit 22 are also referred to as "registered spots." Information about each registered spot includes, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of spot images, a plurality of spot tags, and detailed information associated with a spot ID.

[0026] The "spot ID" is identification information that uniquely identifies a spot in the system 1. The "spot image" is any image related to the corresponding spot. In this embodiment, each spot image is an image of the scenery of the corresponding spot. For example, a plurality of spot images each of which is a different scenery of the corresponding spot may be associated with one spot ID. The "spot tag" is information indicating the attribute of the corresponding spot. For example, if a certain spot is a relatively large natural park and includes the topography of a forest, a river, and a waterfall, three spot tags, "forest", "river", and "waterfall", may be associated with the spot ID of the spot. The spot tag may be set in advance by, for example, the operator of the system 1, or the control unit 23 described later may automatically determine and set the attribute of the corresponding spot from the spot image by image recognition. In this embodiment, all spot tags handled in the system 1 are predetermined, and there may be, for example, 100 types of predetermined spot tags. The "detailed information" is any information indicating the details of the corresponding spot. For example, the detailed information may include, but is not limited to, the name, location, explanatory text, and business hours of the spot.

[0027] 1 includes one or more processors, one or more programmable circuits, one or more dedicated circuits, or a combination thereof. The control unit 23 controls the operation of the entire server 20.

[0028] (System Operation) Next, the operation of the system 1 will be described with reference to FIG.

[0029] Step S100: The control unit 15 of the terminal device 10 stores the user's preference information in the storage unit 14.

[0030] Any method can be used to store the user's preference information. For example, the control unit 15 may display information on the display unit 12 that prompts the user to input information for identifying or estimating the user's preference, and store information indicating the user's preference identified or estimated from the input information as preference information in the storage unit 14. In this embodiment, the user's preference information will be described as including one or more spot tags (e.g., "forest" or "river") indicating the user's preference.

[0031] Step S101: The control unit 23 of the server 20 selects a plurality of spot images stored in the storage unit 22, and transmits the selected spot images to the terminal device 10 via the communication unit 21.

[0032] Any method may be adopted for selecting each spot image to be transmitted to the terminal device 10. For example, the control unit 23 may randomly select a predetermined number of spot images from among all spot images stored in the storage unit 22. Here, the control unit 23 may transmit, for each selected spot image, all spot tags associated with the spot ID of the spot related to the spot image to the terminal device 10 together with the spot image.

[0033] Step S102: The control unit 15 of the terminal device 10 causes the display unit 12 to display the multiple spot images received from the server 20.

[0034] Any method can be used to display the multiple spot images. For example, the control unit 15 may display each spot image sequentially, or may display multiple spot images side by side. Here, the control unit 15 displays each spot image so that the user can select it. For example, the control unit 15 may display information on the display unit 12 that prompts the user to select a favorite spot image.

[0035] Step S103: The control unit 15 of the terminal device 10 specifies the spot image selected by the user from the multiple spot images displayed in step S102 as a target image.

[0036] In this embodiment, the user is assumed to select a spot image that he or she likes.

[0037] Step S104: The control unit 15 of the terminal device 10 updates the preference information stored in the storage unit 14 based on the target image, and transmits the updated preference information to the server 20 via the communication unit 11.

[0038] Any method can be adopted for updating the preference information based on the target image. For example, the control unit 15 may add each spot tag associated with the spot ID of the spot related to the spot image, which is the target image, to the preference information as a spot tag indicating the user's preference. Alternatively, the storage unit 14 may store in advance a machine learning model that inputs an image and outputs a spot tag. Then, the control unit 15 may input the target image to the machine learning model and add the output spot tag to the preference information as a spot tag indicating the user's preference.

[0039] Step S105: The control unit 23 of the server 20 selects one or more candidate spots from among the multiple registered spots based on the preference information received from the terminal device 10.

[0040] Any method can be adopted for selecting candidate spots based on preference information. For example, the control unit 23 may vectorize the spot tag associated with the spot ID for each registered spot by an index such as TF-IDF (Term Frequency - Inverse Document Frequency) and store it in advance in the storage unit 22. In this case, the control unit 23 may similarly vectorize the spot tag included in the preference information and determine the similarity between the spot tag included in the preference information and the spot tag associated with the spot ID of each spot by using an index such as Euclidean distance or cosine similarity. Then, the control unit 23 may select each spot whose similarity is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold as a candidate spot. Alternatively, the control unit 23 may calculate the number of spot tags common to the preference information for each registered spot, and select each spot whose number is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold as a candidate spot. In this way, in step S105, the candidate spots to be recommended to the user are selected by a so-called "tag matching" method.

[0041] Step S106: For each candidate spot selected in step S105, the control unit 23 of the server 20 determines one spot image that is determined to be similar to the target image by similar image search from among the multiple spot images associated with the candidate spot as a representative image, and transmits it to the terminal device 10 via the communication unit 21.

[0042] Specifically, the control unit 23 determines, as the representative image, the spot image with the highest similarity calculated by the similar image search from among multiple spot images associated with the candidate spot. In this way, in step S106, the spot image with the highest similarity in appearance to the target image is determined as the representative image. Note that the similar image search employs, for example, a method of extracting features from each image to be compared, vectorizing the feature amount, and calculating the similarity using an index such as Euclidean distance or cosine similarity, but is not limited to this and any method can be employed. Here, the control unit 23 may transmit the spot ID of each candidate spot to the terminal device 10 together with the representative image.

[0043] Step S107: The control unit 15 of the terminal device 10 causes the display unit 12 to display a representative image of the candidate spot for each of the candidate spots selected in step S105.

[0044] Any method can be used to display the representative image of each candidate spot. For example, the control unit 15 may display each representative image sequentially, or may display each representative image side by side. Here, the control unit 15 displays each representative image so that the user can select it.

[0045] Step S108: The control unit 15 of the terminal device 10 causes the display unit 12 to display detailed information about the candidate spot related to the representative image selected by the user.

[0046] Specifically, when a representative image is selected by the user, the control unit 15 transmits a request for obtaining detailed information on the candidate spot related to the representative image to the server 20 via the communication unit 11. In response to the request, the control unit 23 of the server 20 reads out the detailed information on the candidate spot from the storage unit 22 and returns it to the terminal device 10 via the communication unit 21. Here, the control unit 23 may transmit each spot image of the candidate spot to the terminal device 10 together with the detailed information on the candidate spot. Then, the control unit 15 of the terminal device 10 causes the display unit 12 to display the detailed information (and each spot image) received from the server 20.

[0047] As described above, the terminal device 10 according to the present embodiment specifies an image selected by a user as a target image. Then, for each candidate spot selected from a plurality of spots based on the user's preference information, the terminal device 10 displays one spot image determined to be similar to the target image by similar image search from among a plurality of spot images associated with the candidate spot as a representative image of the candidate spot.

[0048] According to this configuration, among a plurality of spot images associated with the candidate spot selected according to the user's preferences, a spot image similar to the target image selected by the user is displayed as a representative image. Therefore, for example, when a user selects an image of a landscape that the user likes, a candidate spot that matches the user's preferences may be displayed as a representative image similar to the landscape. Therefore, the technology for suggesting spots to a user is improved in that it is possible to display candidate spots with representative images that are likely to be visually liked by the user.

[0049] Although the present disclosure has been described based on the drawings and examples, it should be noted that those skilled in the art may make various modifications and alterations based on the present disclosure. Therefore, it should be noted that these modifications and alterations are included in the scope of the present disclosure. For example, the functions included in each component or step can be rearranged so as not to be logically inconsistent, and multiple components or steps can be combined or divided into one.

[0050] Also, for example, an embodiment is possible in which a general-purpose computer functions as the terminal device 10 or the server 20 according to the above-described embodiment. Specifically, a program describing the processing contents for realizing each function of the terminal device 10 or the server 20 according to the above-described embodiment is stored in the memory of the general-purpose computer, and the program is read and executed by a processor. Therefore, the present disclosure can also be realized as a program executable by a processor, or a non-transitory computer-readable medium that stores the program.

[0051] In the above embodiment, the terminal device 10 displays a plurality of spot images (step S102) and identifies a spot image selected by the user from the plurality of spot images as a target image (step S103). However, an embodiment in which an image other than a spot image is identified as a target image is also possible. In one example, the storage unit 14 of the terminal device 10 may store any plurality of images, such as images captured by a camera function or images downloaded from the network 30. Then, the control unit 15 may identify an image selected by the user from the plurality of images stored in the storage unit 14 as a target image. [Explanation of symbols]

[0052] 1 System 10 Terminal Equipment 11 Communications Department 12 Display section 13 Control section 14 Storage section 15 Control section 20 Servers 21 Communications Department 22 Memory section 23 Control Unit 30 Network

Claims

1. Store user preference information; identifying an image selected by the user as a target image; a control program for displaying, for each candidate spot selected from a plurality of spots based on the preference information, one spot image determined to be similar to the target image by a similar image search from among a plurality of spot images associated with the candidate spot as a representative image of the candidate spot, The stored preference information is updated based on the target image. Control program.

2. 2. The control program according to claim 1, A control program that causes an image selected by the user from among a plurality of stored images to be identified as the target image.

3. 2. The control program according to claim 1, Displaying a plurality of spot images each associated with a spot; a control program for causing a spot image selected by the user from among the plurality of spot images to be specified as the target image;

4. storing user preference information; identifying an image selected by a user as a target image; For each candidate spot selected from a plurality of spots based on the preference information, displaying one spot image determined to be similar to the target image by a similar image search from among a plurality of spot images associated with the candidate spot as a representative image of the candidate spot; and updating the stored preference information based on the target image; A method comprising:

Images