Demonstration experiment management system

Abstract

To provide a technology which can give a participant of demonstration an appropriate incentive according to contribution to the demonstration.SOLUTION: The present disclosure relates to a demonstration management system for managing demonstration. The demonstration management system comprises one or more processors. The one or more processors acquire information about an agreement item to which a participant of the demonstration agrees to be provided among requested items. The requested items are the ones which an executor of the demonstration requests provision of data to the participant. In addition, the one or more processors calculate contribution of the participant to the demonstration at least on the basis of the agreement item. In addition, the one or more processors determine an incentive to be paid to the participant by the executor at least on the basis of the calculated contribution.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a demonstration experiment management system that manages demonstration experiments. [Background technology]

[0002] Patent Document 1 discloses an apparatus and method for planning a data market experiment under a fixed budget. Data market experiments have many applications, including medical testing, market research, online surveys, etc.

[0003] In addition to Patent Document 1, the following Patent Documents 2 and 3 can be cited as examples of documents that show the technical level at the time of filing in the technical field of the present disclosure or in technical fields related thereto. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2016-509307 [Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-004324 [Patent Document 3] Patent No. 5515781 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] PoCs are known as a method for verifying the effectiveness of new products and technologies before they are put into practical use. PoCs are experiments conducted using products or technologies in real-world situations. For those conducting PoCs, it is desirable to obtain data from many participants through the PoC in order to conduct accurate verification. Therefore, as a way to motivate participants to participate in PoCs, it is considered to provide incentives to each participant. If the incentives can be appropriate according to each participant's level of contribution to the PoC, participants' motivation to participate in the PoC can be increased.

[0006] One object of the present disclosure is to provide a technology that can provide participants in a demonstration experiment with appropriate incentives according to their level of contribution to the demonstration experiment. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] The present disclosure relates to a demonstration experiment management system that manages demonstration experiments. The demonstration experiment management system includes one or more processors. The one or more processors acquire information on consent items that participants in the demonstration experiment have agreed to provide among the request items. The request items are items for which the implementer of the demonstration experiment requests participants to provide data. The one or more processors also calculate the participants' contribution to the demonstration experiment based at least on the consent items. The one or more processors also determine incentives to be paid to the participants by the implementer based at least on the calculated contribution. [Effects of the Invention]

[0008] According to the present disclosure, the contribution of each participant to the demonstration experiment is calculated, and an incentive to be paid to each participant is determined based on the calculated contribution. The contribution is calculated based on at least the items of consent that the participant agreed to in providing data.

[0009] The data that participants agree to provide will be utilized by the implementer. In other words, participants contribute to the PoC by providing data related to themselves. Also, it is unique to PoCs that the implementer obtains data after obtaining consent from participants for each item. Therefore, by calculating the degree of contribution based on information about the consent items, it is possible to appropriately evaluate the degree of contribution taking into account the characteristics of the PoC. Incentives can be determined based on the degree of contribution calculated in this way, and appropriate incentives can be given to participants. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0010] [Figure 1]1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of a demonstration experiment management system according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2] 10 is a table showing an example of data acquired by the management device according to the present embodiment during a demonstration experiment. [Figure 3] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a demonstration experiment management system according to a first embodiment. [Figure 4] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a demonstration experiment management system according to a second embodiment. [Figure 5] 10 is a table showing another example of information contained in a database in the second embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0011] Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0012] 1. Overview of the Demonstration Experiment Management System 1 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of the configuration of a demonstration experiment management system 10 that manages demonstration experiments. The demonstration experiment management system 10 includes a management device 11 and a storage device 12 that is coupled to the management device 11.

[0013] The management device 11 is a server that manages the demonstration experiment. The management device 11 includes one or more processors 111 (hereinafter simply referred to as processor 111) and one or more memories 112 (hereinafter simply referred to as memory 112). The processor 111 executes various processes. The functions of the management device 11 are realized by the processes executed by the processor 111. The memory 112 is a volatile memory such as a DDR memory, and expands programs used by the processor 111 and temporarily stores various data.

[0014] The storage device 12 is a non-volatile storage medium such as a flash memory or an HDD (Hard Disk Drive). The storage device 12 stores various programs and various data required for management of the demonstration experiment by the management device 11. The various data stored in the storage device 12 includes a database, which will be described later. There may be multiple storage devices 12. Furthermore, the storage device 12 may be included in the management device 11.

[0015] The management device 11 can communicate with an implementer terminal 21 owned by an implementer 20 of a demonstration experiment. There may be multiple implementers 20 and implementer terminals 21. The implementer 20 registers the demonstration experiment that they wish to conduct in the management device 11. The implementer 20 also transmits information required to conduct the demonstration experiment to the management device 11. For example, the implementer 20 transmits information regarding the content of the demonstration experiment, the desired date and time, the data they wish to acquire, etc. to the management device 11. The implementer 20 transmits and receives this information to and from the management device 11 via the implementer terminal 21.

[0016] The management device 11 can communicate with user terminals 31A, 31B, and 31C owned by multiple users 30A, 30B, and 30C of the demonstration experiment management system 10. Hereinafter, the reference symbols 30A, 30B, and 30C are used to indicate a participant when specifying one participant, but the reference symbol 30 is used to refer to any participant or to refer collectively to all participants. Furthermore, the reference symbols 31A, 31B, and 31C are used to indicate a participant terminal when specifying one participant, but the reference symbol 31 is used to refer to any participant terminal or to refer collectively to all participants.

[0017] When a new demonstration experiment is registered in the management device 11 by the implementer 20, the management device 11 notifies the user 30 of information about the demonstration experiment via the user terminal 31. If the user 30 wishes to participate in the notified demonstration experiment, the user 30 registers the information necessary for participation in the management device 11 via the user terminal 31. If the recruitment conditions of the implementer 20 match the conditions of the user 30, the user 30 is decided to participate in the demonstration experiment.

[0018] Users 30 who participate in the demonstration experiment provide data related to themselves to the implementer 20 in the demonstration experiment. Data related to the users 30 is first acquired by the management device 11 from a terminal device such as the user terminal 31. The management device 11 then transmits the acquired data to the implementer terminal 21, thereby providing the data to the implementer 20. The data transmitted from the management device 11 to the implementer terminal 21 may be the data itself acquired from the terminal device, or may be data that has been processed, such as data aggregation.

[0019] FIG. 2 is a table for explaining an example of data related to a participant (here, user 30A) that is acquired by management device 11 during a demonstration experiment.

[0020] The requested items are items for which the implementer 20 requests participants in the demonstration experiment to provide data. Participants in the demonstration experiment can choose whether or not to provide data to the implementer 20 for each requested item. Hereinafter, among the requested items, items for which participants in the demonstration experiment agree to provide data are referred to as consented items. Participant data for consented items is acquired by the management device 11 via the terminal device. At this time, the management device 11 does not acquire participant data for items for which consent has not been obtained. In this way, participant data is collected by the management device 11 while taking into consideration the privacy of the participants.

[0021] For example, in demonstration experiment D1, the implementer 20 requests the provision of data regarding the age, sex, respiratory rate, pulse, and body temperature of the participants. Among them, user 30A agrees to provide data regarding the respiratory rate and pulse. Therefore, the management device 11 acquires data regarding the respiratory rate and pulse of user 30A, but does not acquire data regarding the age, sex, and body temperature.

[0022] The implementer 20 can also request feedback on the demonstration experiment from the participants. Feedback from the participants is provided voluntarily by the participants in response to a request from the implementer 20. An example of feedback is responses to a questionnaire. The questionnaire is conducted by the management device 11 based on a request from the implementer 20. For example, in demonstration experiment D1, the management device 11 conducts a questionnaire consisting of 50 questions, and the user 30A answers 20 of them. The answers are input by the user 30A to the user terminal 31A and acquired by the management device 11.

[0023] Furthermore, each demonstration experiment may be conducted multiple times, in which case participants may be able to choose whether or not to participate in each experiment. For example, demonstration experiment D2 was conducted three times, and user 30A participated in the first and third experiments, but not the second.

[0024] Referring again to FIG. 1 , in order to reduce bias in the data and make the demonstration experiment meaningful, it is desirable for the implementer 20 to have a large number of users 30 willing to participate in the demonstration experiment and to be able to obtain a large amount of information from each participant. Therefore, to motivate users 30 to participate in the demonstration experiment and provide data, incentives are provided to users 30 who participate in the demonstration experiment. The incentives may be provided to participants directly by the implementer 20, or may be provided to participants via the management device 11. Furthermore, the incentives may be paid in the form of money, corporate currency, or the like. However, they are generally paid in the form of goods, services, or the like.

[0025] If the incentives paid to participants can be made appropriate according to the participants' level of contribution to the demonstration experiment, users 30 can be more effectively encouraged to participate in more demonstration experiments and provide more data. Below, two embodiments of the demonstration experiment management system 10 for granting participants appropriate incentives according to their level of contribution will be described.

[0026] 2. First embodiment In order to pay appropriate incentives according to the degree of contribution, it is necessary to properly evaluate the degree of contribution of each participant to the demonstration experiment. Therefore, as a first embodiment, calculation of the degree of contribution of each participant by the management device 11 will be described.

[0027] FIG. 3 is a table showing an example of information used by the management device 11 to calculate the degree of contribution. The table in FIG. 3 shows information on the consent items of each user 30, the participation rate, and feedback for each demonstration experiment. The management device 11 can calculate this information based on data acquired from the terminal device during the demonstration experiment. The management device 11 calculates the degree of contribution based on at least one item of this information.

[0028] Here, the percentage of consent items is used as information about consent items. The percentage of consent items is the ratio of consent items to requested items in each demonstration experiment. For example, in demonstration experiment D1, user 30A agreed to the provision of data for three of the five requested items. Therefore, the percentage of consent items is calculated as 60%.

[0029] When calculating the degree of contribution based on the proportion of agreed-upon items, the management device 11 calculates the degree of contribution so that the greater the proportion of agreed-upon items, the higher the degree of contribution.

[0030] The management device 11 may calculate the degree of contribution using information about the consent items other than the percentage of consent items. For example, the management device 11 may calculate the degree of contribution based on the number of consent items. In this case, the management device 11 calculates the degree of contribution such that the greater the number of consent items, the higher the degree of contribution.

[0031] Alternatively, the management device 11 may calculate the contribution level based on the type of consent item. For the implementer 20, the importance of obtaining data may differ depending on the type of requested item. In such cases, the implementer 20 may weight each item according to its level of importance, and then calculate the contribution level from the number and proportion of consent items. For example, in the example of demonstration experiment D1 in FIG. 2 , in order to reduce bias when aggregating data, it is more important for the implementer 20 to obtain data on age and gender than to obtain data on respiratory rate, pulse rate, and body temperature. Therefore, the management device 11 may calculate the contribution level of a participant so that the contribution level is higher when the consent items include either age or gender than when the consent items include either respiratory rate, pulse rate, or body temperature.

[0032] Alternatively, the ease of obtaining consent from participants may vary depending on the type of requested item. For example, in Demonstration Experiment D2 in Figure 2, compared to data such as age and camera startup count, GPS data and photo data are private information for participants, so it may be more difficult to obtain consent to provide the data. Therefore, the contribution level may be calculated so that when GPS data and photo data are included in the consent items, the contribution level is higher than when they are not.

[0033] The method of calculating participants' contributions to a demonstration experiment based on information about consent items is a method of calculating contributions specific to demonstration experiments. In other words, demonstration experiments are conducted by using products and technologies in real-world situations, so data must be collected only after obtaining participants' consent in order to respect their privacy. This is specific to demonstration experiments.

[0034] The participation rate is the proportion of user 30's participation in multiple demonstration experiments. For example, demonstration experiment D2 was conducted three times, and user 30A participated in two of them, so the participation rate is calculated as 60%. When the contribution level is calculated based on the participation rate, management device 11 calculates the contribution level so that the higher the participation rate, the higher the contribution level. Note that if only one demonstration experiment has been conducted, the participation rate does not need to be calculated, and may be calculated as 100%.

[0035] Furthermore, the management device 11 may evaluate feedback from participants and use the evaluation results to calculate the degree of contribution. Here, the evaluation of feedback is performed based on the response rate to a questionnaire. When calculating the degree of contribution based on the evaluation of feedback, the management device 11 calculates the degree of contribution so that the higher the evaluation, the higher the degree of contribution. For example, if the feedback from participants is responses to a questionnaire, the management device 11 calculates the degree of contribution so that the higher the response rate, the higher the degree of contribution.

[0036] The management device 11 may calculate the degree of contribution based on the information on the consent items among these pieces of information. By calculating the degree of contribution based on the information on the consent items, it is possible to calculate an appropriate degree of contribution that takes into account the characteristics of the demonstration experiment.

[0037] Alternatively, the management device 11 may calculate the degree of contribution using all three of the information on the consent items, the participation rate, and the evaluation of the feedback. By calculating the degree of contribution based on more information, it is possible to calculate a more appropriate degree of contribution that is in line with the actual situation.

[0038] As described above, the demonstration experiment management system 10 of the first embodiment can properly calculate the degree of contribution of each participant to the demonstration experiment. By properly calculating the degree of contribution, the incentive determined based on the degree of contribution can also be made appropriate. In this way, appropriate incentives can be paid to participants according to their degree of contribution to the demonstration experiment, and the payment of incentives can be more effective in motivating users 30 to participate in the demonstration experiment and provide data.

[0039] The incentive based on the calculated contribution level can be determined arbitrarily. For example, the contribution level calculated by the management device 11 may be reflected in the amount of incentive given to the participant. For example, it is conceivable that a participant with a low contribution level may be paid one bottle of juice as an incentive, and a participant with a high contribution level may be paid three bottles of juice as an incentive.

[0040] Alternatively, the calculated contribution level may be reflected in the type of incentive to be granted. For example, it is conceivable that participants with low contribution levels may be paid a common coffee drink that is widely available on the market as an incentive, and participants with high contribution levels may be paid an original blend of coffee drink as an incentive. Alternatively, using information about the appropriateness of incentives, which will be described later, a highly appropriate incentive may be paid to participants with high contribution levels, and a less appropriate incentive may be paid to participants with low contribution levels. The appropriateness of incentives will be described in the second embodiment.

[0041] In addition, the incentives to be paid to the participants may be determined by the management device 11. In this case, the management device 11 may notify the organizer 20 of information about the determined incentives. Alternatively, the organizer 20 may determine the incentives to be paid to the participants. In this case, the management device 11 transmits information about the calculated contribution levels to the organizer 20 via the organizer terminal 21. The organizer 20 can determine the incentives based on the contribution levels of the participants obtained from the management device 11.

[0042] 3. Second embodiment In order to provide appropriate incentives to users 30 according to their contribution levels, it is more effective to know the incentives that match the needs of participants. Therefore, as a second embodiment, construction of a database regarding the appropriateness of incentives by the demonstration experiment management system 10 will be described. The second embodiment is an embodiment in which incentives are paid in the form of goods or services.

[0043] The management device 11 can receive evaluations from participants regarding incentives paid for demonstration experiments. Users 30 who participate in demonstration experiments and receive incentives input their evaluations into user terminals 31, and the management device 11 communicates with the user terminals 31 to acquire the input evaluations. The management device 11 then constructs a database regarding the appropriateness of the incentives based on the acquired evaluations. The constructed database is stored in the storage device 12.

[0044] Figure 4 is a table showing an example of information about the appropriateness of incentives that will be included in the database to be constructed. The table in Figure 4 shows the details of incentives paid in the past and the appropriateness of each incentive for each user 30.

[0045] Here, the appropriateness is calculated as a score, with a higher score indicating a higher appropriateness. When constructing the database, the management device 11 determines incentives for each participant so that as many types of incentives as possible are paid to each participant. At this time, as shown in FIG. 4, different incentives may be granted one for each of multiple demonstration experiments. Alternatively, multiple types of incentives may be determined to be granted in one demonstration experiment. The management device 11 then receives evaluations from the participants for each incentive and calculates the appropriateness so that the higher the evaluation, the higher the appropriateness of the incentive. As an example of calculating the appropriateness, if the evaluations from the participants are given as scores, the evaluations given by the participants may be used as the appropriateness.

[0046] The information on the appropriateness of the incentives calculated in this way is stored as a database in the storage device 12. The database stored in the storage device 12 can be used to determine the incentives to be paid to participants in subsequent demonstration experiments.

[0047] For example, suppose that after the database is constructed, user 30D participates in a new demonstration experiment. The management device 11 obtains information from the database regarding the appropriateness of the incentive to be paid to user 30D. The appropriateness of incentives for user 30D is particularly high for potato chips and chocolate. This means that user 30D particularly likes potato chips and chocolate as incentives. Therefore, the management device 11 determines these as the new incentives to be paid to user 30D. The same applies if a user 30 other than user 30D participates in the new demonstration experiment. In this way, incentives that meet the needs of each participant can be granted, thereby increasing participants' satisfaction with the incentives they receive.

[0048] As another example of the information about the appropriateness of incentives included in the database, the appropriateness of each incentive may be calculated for each content of the demonstration experiment, rather than for each user 30. Figure 5 is a table showing another example of the information about the appropriateness of incentives.

[0049] Participants in demonstration experiments with the same content may show similar preferences for goods and services. For example, participants in a demonstration experiment related to saunas may generally tend to prefer sports drinks over orange juice, whereas participants in a demonstration experiment related to sweets may generally tend to prefer orange juice over sports drinks. Therefore, the management device 11 may build a database of information on the appropriateness of incentives calculated for each content of the demonstration experiment, as shown in FIG. 5.

[0050] In this case, the management device 11 prepares multiple types of incentives in advance and randomly grants them to participants in the demonstration experiment. The management device 11 then aggregates the participants' evaluations of each type of incentive and calculates the appropriateness of the incentive so that the more highly rated the incentive is by the participants, the higher the appropriateness of the incentive. For example, the average of the participants' evaluations of each incentive may be used as the appropriateness.

[0051] The database thus constructed is stored in the storage device 12 and can be used to determine incentives in subsequent demonstration experiments.

[0052] For example, sports drinks and bath towels are particularly suitable as incentives in a demonstration experiment related to saunas. This means that users 30 who wish to participate in a demonstration experiment related to saunas tend to prefer sports drinks and bath towels as incentives. Therefore, the management device 11 determines these as incentives. In this way, incentives that meet the needs of users 30 can be paid, and the satisfaction of participants who receive the incentives can be increased.

[0053] Furthermore, when incentives are paid in the form of goods or services, the provision of the incentive may also serve as a form of product advertising. Therefore, the implementer 20 may request a cooperating company to pay the incentive. In such cases, information about the appropriateness of the incentive, such as that shown in FIG. 5, can be used to find a cooperating company. For example, suppose that the implementer 20 of a demonstration experiment related to saunas is considering requesting cooperation from a confectionery manufacturer or a beverage manufacturer. According to the information shown in FIG. 5, orange juice or sports drinks are more appropriate as incentives for participants in the demonstration experiment related to saunas than potato chips or chocolate. Therefore, the implementer 20 selects a beverage manufacturer as the company to request cooperation from. The beverage manufacturer benefits from being able to distribute its products to users 30 who are likely to prefer its products, which increases the likelihood of cooperation.

[0054] Furthermore, the constructed database may further include information calculated as follows. In addition to the content of the demonstration experiment, the management device 11 may calculate the appropriateness of incentives for each of even finer categories. For example, the management device 11 may calculate the appropriateness of incentives for each of the participant's attributes, such as age and gender. The information calculated in this way can also be used when determining incentives to be paid to participants in subsequent demonstration experiments. This makes it possible to determine more appropriate incentives in accordance with the participant's attributes, and to make the incentives more suited to the participant's needs.

[0055] In either case where the information on the appropriateness of incentives is information for each participant or information for each content of the demonstration experiment, the entity that determines the incentives using the database stored in the storage device 12 may be the management device 11 or the implementer 20. When the implementer 20 is the decision-maker, the management device 11 provides the implementer 20 with some or all of the constructed information, and the implementer 20 determines the incentives based on the provided information.

[0056] As described above, according to the second embodiment of the demonstration experiment management system 10, evaluations of paid incentives from participants are received, and the appropriateness of the incentives is calculated based on the received evaluations. Information on the calculated appropriateness of the incentives is then constructed as a database. The database can be used by the management device 11 or the implementer 20 to tailor the incentives to suit the needs of the participants. In this way, the motivation of users 30 to participate in the demonstration experiment can be increased, and the effectiveness of providing incentives as a motivator for users 30 to participate in the demonstration experiment can be improved. [Explanation of symbols]

[0057] 10...Demonstration experiment management system, 11...Management device, 12...Storage device 20...executor, 21...executor terminal, 30...user, 31...user terminal 111...processor, 112...memory

Claims

1. A demonstration experiment management system for managing demonstration experiments, one or more processors; The requested items are items for which the implementer of the demonstration experiment requests participants in the demonstration experiment to provide data, the one or more processors: Obtaining information regarding the requested items that the participant has agreed to provide; Calculating the participant's contribution to the demonstration experiment based on at least the consent items; determining an incentive to be paid by the implementer to the participant based at least on the contribution; It was configured as Demonstration experiment management system.

2. The demonstration experiment management system according to claim 1, the one or more processors: The degree of contribution is calculated based on at least one of the number of the consent items, the type of the consent items, and the ratio of the consent items to the request items. It was configured as Demonstration experiment management system.

3. The demonstration experiment management system according to claim 1, the one or more processors: The degree of contribution is calculated based on at least one of feedback from the participants to the implementer and a participation rate of the participants in the demonstration experiment. It was configured as Demonstration experiment management system.

4. The demonstration experiment management system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising one or more storage devices that store a database indicating the appropriateness of the incentive for each participant or each type of demonstration experiment; The one or more processors are configured to acquire the appropriateness from the database and determine the incentive based on the acquired appropriateness and the contribution. Demonstration experiment management system.

5. The demonstration experiment management system according to claim 4, the one or more processors: Accepting ratings of the incentive from the participants; The appropriateness is calculated based on the evaluation from the participant of the incentives previously paid to the participant, and the database is generated and updated. It was configured as Demonstration experiment management system.

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