Recommendation information providing device and computer program

Abstract

To provide a recommendation information providing device that can provide information that is difficult to get in touch with in a conventional information acquisition mode but may potentially draw the interest.SOLUTION: A recommendation information providing device comprises: an information acquisition unit (401) that acquires recommendation information provided to a first user terminal (10) used by a first user; a request receiving unit (404) that receives, from a second user terminal (20) used by a second user different from the first user, an information provision request requesting provision of the recommendation information provided to the first user terminal; and an information providing unit (405) that, upon receiving the information provision request, provides the recommendation information to the second user terminal.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a recommendation information providing device and a computer program. [Background technology]

[0002] When you want to get some information, you enter a keyword into a search engine or the like, and the information is provided as a search result. In addition, some recommended information may be provided based on your online action history or actual behavior history. Another way to obtain information is to obtain information shared on the network by information providers such as influencers. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-21726 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] In conventional information acquisition methods, for example, when searching by keyword, the information is limited to the range of that keyword, making it difficult to obtain unexpected new information. Furthermore, when recommended information is provided based on online action history or actual behavior history, the information is limited to information related to one's own actions, making it difficult to obtain unexpected new information. Information disseminated by influencers is limited to information that the influencer intends to disseminate, so the range of information also tends to be narrow. On the other hand, if various information is provided without any context, users will receive a lot of useless information that they may not be interested in, even if it is potentially relevant.

[0005] The present disclosure provides a recommendation information providing device that can provide information that is difficult to access using conventional information acquisition methods but that may potentially be of interest. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] The present disclosure provides a recommended information providing device, comprising: an information acquiring unit (401) that acquires recommended information to be provided to a first user terminal (10) used by a first user; a request accepting unit (404) that receives an information provision request from a second user terminal (20) used by a second user different from the first user, requesting provision of the recommended information provided to the first user terminal; and an information providing unit (405) that provides the recommended information to the second user terminal upon receiving the information provision request. [Effects of the Invention]

[0007] According to the present disclosure, it is possible to provide a recommendation information providing device that can provide information that is difficult to access using conventional information acquisition methods but that may potentially be of interest. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0008] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a recommendation information providing device according to this embodiment. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an operation state of the first user terminal shown in FIG. [Figure 3] FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining an operation state of the first user terminal shown in FIG. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of information stored in the information storage unit illustrated in FIG. [Figure 5] FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the first user terminal shown in FIG. [Figure 6] FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining an operation state of the second user terminal shown in FIG. [Figure 7]FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining an operation state of the second user terminal shown in FIG. [Figure 8] FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the recommendation information providing device shown in FIG. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0009] Hereinafter, the present embodiment will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. To facilitate understanding of the description, the same components in the drawings will be denoted by the same reference numerals as much as possible, and duplicated descriptions will be omitted.

[0010] A recommendation information providing device 40 according to this embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 1. As shown in Fig. 1, the recommendation information providing device 40 is connected to an information communication network NW. The recommendation information providing device 40 is configured to be able to send and receive information via the information communication network NW. The recommendation information providing device 40 is configured with hardware including a CPU, memory, and a communication interface.

[0011] A first user terminal 10 and a second user terminal 20 are connected to the information and communication network NW. The first user terminal 10 and the second user terminal 20 are configured to be able to send and receive information via the information and communication network NW. The number of user terminals connected to the information and communication network NW is not limited to two, and for the sake of convenience, only two are shown in FIG. 1.

[0012] An information providing server 30 is connected to the information and communication network NW. The information providing server 30 is configured to be able to send and receive information via the information and communication network NW. The information providing server 30 provides information that meets predetermined conditions via the information and communication network NW. For example, when a first user terminal 10 inputs a keyword into a search engine or the like to perform a search, the information providing server 30 provides information as a search result. The information providing server 30 also provides recommended information in accordance with a predetermined protocol based on the user's online action history, actual behavior history, etc. In either case, the information providing server 30 provides the first user terminal 10 with information corresponding to the results of the user's actions. The information providing server 30 transmits recommended information to the first user terminal 10 based on information transmitted from the first user terminal 10 and location information such as the location of the first user terminal 10.

[0013] The recommendation information providing device 40 includes an information acquiring unit 401 , an information storing unit 402 , an information restricting unit 403 , a request receiving unit 404 , and an information providing unit 405 .

[0014] The information acquisition unit 401 is a part that acquires recommendation information to be provided to the first user terminal 10 used by the first user A. In this embodiment, it is assumed that the first user terminal 10 is used by the first user A.

[0015] As illustrated in FIG. 2, it is assumed that a first user A using a first user terminal 10 is currently logged in to an information providing service. It is assumed that the first user A is taking a walk with the first user terminal 10. When the first user A utters, "Is there anything interesting nearby?", the resulting voice data is transmitted to the information providing server 30. Note that the voice data is not limited to the utterance, and recommendation information (described later) may be provided by searching through the interface of the first user terminal 10, such as "Show recommended spots in the area."

[0016] The information providing server 30 generates recommendation information based on the information stored about the first user A and the voice data transmitted from the first user terminal 10. The information providing server 30 transmits the generated recommendation information to the first user terminal 10. The recommendation information is displayed on the display unit 101 of the first user terminal 10. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 2, the display unit 101 displays a character string saying "There is a culvert nearby that you are interested in" and a map.

[0017] Following the display of the recommended information, the display unit 101 displays a screen for confirming whether to disclose the recommended information. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the display unit 101 displays the message "May I disclose the information recommended to you?" along with "Yes" or "No" buttons. In this embodiment, the user is asked to confirm whether or not to disclose the recommended information each time, but the manner of confirming whether or not to disclose the recommended information is not limited to this. As an example, the user may set in advance whether or not to disclose all recommended information. Furthermore, for example, if a mode such as "private browsing mode" is set, the recommended information provided in this mode may not be provided.

[0018] When the first user A selects "Yes" or "No," the recommendation information, "There is a culvert that you are interested in nearby," is sent to the recommendation information providing device 40 along with the character string and map information. The information sent to the recommendation information providing device 40 is received by the information acquisition unit 401. The information sent to the recommendation information providing device 40 may include information such as "which places you have actually visited" and "your evaluation of the place if you visited it." This information is not disclosed to the second user B, but can be used as auxiliary information for determining which recommendation information to send first when there is multiple pieces of recommendation information to provide to the second user B. For example, it is possible to prioritize the provision of places that have actually been visited, or places with high ratings.

[0019] The information acquisition unit 401 stores the received information in the information storage unit 402. An example of the information stored in the information storage unit 402 is shown in Fig. 4. As illustrated in Fig. 4, the information storage unit 402 stores information about "recipient of recommended information," "recommended information," and "whether or not the information can be provided."

[0020] "Recommendation information recipients" is a list of first users as explained above. In addition to information that identifies the first users, information indicating the attributes of the first users is also stored. For example, first user A's occupation is a celebrity, so information that identifies A and information that identifies the celebrity are stored.

[0021] "Recommendation information" stores recommendation information that the "recommended information recipient" has received from the information providing server 30. "Provision availability" stores intention information on whether to permit or deny the provision of the "recommended information" to a third party. For example, first user A selected "Yes" in Figure 3 for the recommended information, "There is a culvert that you are interested in nearby," and the map information, so "Provision availability" stores "Yes."

[0022] The information processing described above will be explained with reference to Fig. 5. In step S101, the first user terminal 10 acquires recommendation information. In step S102 following step S101, the display unit 101 of the first user terminal 10 displays the recommendation information (see Fig. 2).

[0023] In step S103 following step S102, it is determined whether the information entered by first user A can be made public. If the information entered by first user A can be made public (selecting "Yes" in FIG. 3), the process proceeds to step S104. If the information entered by first user A cannot be made public (selecting "No" in FIG. 3), the process proceeds to step S104.

[0024] In step S104, information indicating whether or not the recommendation information is to be made public is transmitted together with the recommendation information to the recommendation information providing device 40. In step S105, information indicating whether or not the recommendation information is to be made public is transmitted together with the recommendation information to the recommendation information providing device.

[0025] The explanation will continue with reference to FIG. 1. The information restriction unit 403 is a part where a first user restricts the provision of recommended information to a second user. As explained above, the provision of recommended information to a third party can be performed when the recommended information is initially stored. When restricting the provision of recommended information mainly after the fact, the information restriction unit 403 receives an instruction from the first user terminal 10 and updates the information stored in the information storage unit 402. For example, in the information illustrated in FIG. 4, when information that prohibits the subsequent disclosure of "underground drain map data" is received from the first user terminal 10, the information restriction unit 403 updates the corresponding "provision availability" to "prohibited."

[0026] The request receiving unit 404 is a part that receives an information provision request for the provision of recommended information. The information provision request is sent from a second user terminal 20 used by a second user B who is different from a first user A. The recommended information is information sent from the information providing server 30 to a first user terminal 10 used by a first user A who is different from a second user B.

[0027] When the request receiving unit 404 receives an information provision request, it extracts recommendation information that matches the information provision request from the information stored in the information storage unit 402. The request receiving unit 404 outputs the extracted recommendation information to the information providing unit 405.

[0028] The information providing unit 405 is a part that, upon receiving an information provision request, provides recommended information to the second user B. The information providing unit 405 transmits the recommended information extracted and output by the request receiving unit 404 to the second user terminal 20 used by the second user B.

[0029] As illustrated in FIG. 6, it is assumed that a second user B using a second user terminal 20 is currently logged in to an information providing service. The second user B intends to wonder, "Mr. A always talks about interesting things, but I wonder what he's interested in." When the screen 201 of the second user terminal 20 displays the message, "Who would you like to see information recommended by?", the second user B enters "Mr. A" in the input unit 202. Based on the information "Mr. A" entered in the input unit 202, the second user terminal 20 transmits an information provision request to the recommendation information providing device 40, stating, "I would like to see the recommended information provided to the first user A."

[0030] The request receiving unit 404 receives an information provision request, such as "I want to see the recommended information provided to the first user A," sent to the recommendation information providing device 40. The request receiving unit 404 checks information about the first user A stored in the information storage unit 402. As illustrated in FIG. 4, the first user A is willing to provide "map data of culverts" but is not willing to provide "music data of a favorite artist." The information stored in the information storage unit 402 may include, for example, not only information recommended to the first user A but also information voluntarily collected by the first user A. Voluntarily collected information includes information pinned as a favorite point on a map service or information "liked" on a social networking service. From this perspective, "music data of a favorite artist" can be considered as voluntarily collected information. Therefore, the recommended information in this embodiment also includes information voluntarily collected by the user.

[0031] The request receiving unit 404 extracts only the "culvert map data" and outputs it to the information providing unit 405. The information providing unit 405 transmits to the second user terminal 20 information that "the recommended information provided to the first user A is 'culvert map data'."

[0032] As shown in FIG. 7, the display unit 201 of the second user terminal 20 displays text information saying "Information about culverts has recently been recommended to Mr. A," and map information about the area around the culvert.

[0033] The information processing in the recommendation information providing device 40 described above will be described with reference to FIG. 8. In step S201, the request receiving unit 404 receives an information provision request from the second user terminal 20. In step S202 following step S201, the request receiving unit 404 determines whether there is any information that can be provided about the first user A identified by the information provision request. If there is any information that can be provided about the first user A (there is information that indicates whether or not the information can be provided as "yes" in FIG. 4), the process proceeds to step S203. If there is no information that can be provided about the first user A (there is no information that indicates whether or not the information can be provided as "yes" in FIG. 4), the process proceeds to step S205. In step S205, the information providing unit 405 sends a message to the second user terminal 20 stating "There is no information that can be provided."

[0034] In step S203, request receiving unit 404 selects information to be provided to second user B and outputs it to information providing unit 405. In step S204 following step S203, information providing unit 405 transmits the information output from request receiving unit 404 to second user terminal 20.

[0035] The recommendation information providing device 40 according to this embodiment includes an information acquisition unit 401, a request receiving unit 404, and an information providing unit 405. The information acquisition unit 401 acquires recommendation information to be provided to a first user terminal 10 used by a first user. The request receiving unit 404 receives an information provision request from a second user terminal 20 used by a second user different from the first user, requesting the provision of recommendation information provided to the first user terminal 10. Upon receiving the information provision request, the information providing unit 405 provides the recommendation information to the second user terminal 20.

[0036] The second user can specify the first user to whom the recommendation information was provided, and can therefore specify the user in whom the second user is interested. The recommendation information provided to the specified first user is provided, and the second user can obtain the recommendation information provided to the first user in whom the second user is interested. Therefore, information that may potentially be of interest to the second user, although difficult to access using conventional information acquisition methods, can be obtained.

[0037] The recommendation information providing device 40 according to this embodiment further includes an information restriction unit 405 that allows the first user to restrict the provision of recommendation information to the second user terminal. Since the first user can restrict the recommendation information that is provided to third parties, it is possible to prevent unintended spread of recommendation information.

[0038] In this embodiment, the information providing unit 405 can also provide the second user terminal 20 with action information indicating an action taken by the first user in response to the recommended information. For example, when the first user presses "Like" on the recommended information displayed on the first user terminal 10, information indicating this is transmitted to the recommendation information providing device 40, and this information is also stored in the information storage unit 402.

[0039] In this embodiment, the information providing unit 405 can provide the recommendation information together with associated information related to the recommendation information to the second user terminal 20. The information providing unit 405 can provide the associated information together with map information to the second user terminal 20.

[0040] In this embodiment, the first user A may be multiple people, and may be divided into groups based on attributes. The information provision request includes group identification information that identifies the group, and the information provision unit 405 can provide the second user terminal 20 with recommended information to be provided to the first user terminal 10 included in the group. For example, an attribute can be set as "women in their twenties living in Minato Ward, Tokyo," and an information provision request can be made saying, "I would like to know recommended information that women in their twenties living in Minato Ward, Tokyo are interested in."

[0041] The computer program for realizing the recommendation information providing device 40 according to this embodiment is as follows: The computer program causes a computer to execute an information acquisition step of acquiring recommendation information to be provided to a first user terminal 10 used by a first user, a request acceptance step (step S201 in FIG. 8) of receiving an information provision request from a second user terminal 20 used by a second user different from the first user, requesting provision of the recommendation information provided to the first user terminal 10, and an information provision step (step S204 in FIG. 8) of providing the recommendation information to the second user terminal 20 upon receiving the information provision request.

[0042] The present embodiment has been described above with reference to specific examples. However, the present disclosure is not limited to these specific examples. Design modifications to these specific examples made by a person skilled in the art as appropriate are also included within the scope of the present disclosure as long as they comprise the features of the present disclosure. The elements of the above-described specific examples, as well as their arrangement, conditions, shape, etc., are not limited to those exemplified and can be modified as appropriate. The elements of the above-described specific examples can be combined in various ways as appropriate, as long as no technical contradictions arise. [Explanation of symbols]

[0043] 10: First user terminal 20: Second user terminal NW: Information and communication network 30: Information server 40: Recommendation information providing device 401: Information acquisition department 402: Information storage section 403: Information Restriction 404: Request acceptance section 405: Information provision department

Claims

1. A recommendation information providing device, an information acquisition unit (401) that acquires recommendation information to be provided to a first user terminal (10) used by a first user; a request receiving unit (404) that receives an information provision request from a second user terminal (20) used by a second user different from the first user, requesting provision of recommendation information provided to the first user terminal; an information providing unit (405) that provides the recommendation information to the second user terminal upon receiving the information provision request; A recommendation information providing device comprising:

2. The recommendation information providing device according to claim 1, The recommendation information providing device further comprises an information restriction unit (403) for restricting the provision of the recommendation information to the second user terminal by the first user.

3. The recommendation information providing device according to claim 1, The information providing unit provides the recommendation information to the second user terminal together with action information indicating an action taken by the first user in response to the recommendation information.

4. The recommendation information providing device according to claim 1, The information providing unit provides the recommendation information to the second user terminal together with additional information related to the recommendation information.

5. 5. The recommendation information providing device according to claim 4, The information providing unit includes map information in the additional information and provides it to the second user terminal.

6. The recommendation information providing device according to claim 1, The first users are a plurality of people, and are grouped by attribute, the information provision request includes group identification information that identifies the group, The information providing unit provides the recommendation information provided to the first user terminal included in the group to the second user terminal.

7. A computer program comprising: an information acquisition step of acquiring recommendation information to be provided to a first user terminal used by a first user; a request receiving step of receiving an information provision request from a second user terminal used by a second user different from the first user, the information provision request requesting provision of the recommendation information provided to the first user terminal; and an information providing step of providing the recommendation information to the second user terminal when the information provision request is received.

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