Information processing systems, computer programs, and information processing methods

Abstract

We provide technology that can easily present advertising space information from multiple media companies to users. [Solution] According to one aspect of this disclosure, for multiple media companies, advertising space information managed by the corresponding media company is acquired for each media company. Based on the acquired advertising space information, user-facing information, which is advertising space information in response to inquiries from users entered through the user interface, is generated. The generated user-facing information is output to the user through the user interface.

Description

[[Technical Field]]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to an information processing system and an information processing method. [[Background Art]]

[0002] Conventionally, there is known an advertisement distribution system that registers medium information provided by a medium owner in a database and provides useful medium information to an advertiser terminal based on the medium information registered in the database (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

[0003] According to this advertisement distribution system, the medium owner inputs medium information related to digital signage managed by the medium owner through a medium owner terminal. In this process, the medium owner inputs, as the medium information, an address, a building, customer characteristics (gender, age group, traffic volume, etc.), and medium specifications (screen size, etc.) through an input screen of a predetermined format displayed on the medium owner terminal. [[Prior Art Documents]] [[Patent Documents]]

[0004] [[Patent Document 1]] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-182202 [[Summary of the Invention]] [[Problem to be Solved by the Invention]]

[0005] By the way, many media companies manage advertisement space information in a format unique to the company. Therefore, when considering the construction of a system that provides advertisement space information managed by a plurality of media companies to users such as advertisers and advertising agencies, the following problems arise due to different formats for each media company.

[0006] For example, if each media company is required to provide advertisement space information in a common format for integrated management of advertisement space information of each media company, a heavy work load is imposed on the media company. On the other hand, when advertisement space information is provided to users in a format specific to each media company, it becomes difficult for the user to understand the information.

[0007] Therefore, according to one aspect of this disclosure, it is desirable to provide technology that can easily provide users with advertising space information from multiple media companies. [Means for solving the problem]

[0008] According to one aspect of this disclosure, an information processing system is provided. The information processing system comprises a slot information acquisition unit, a generation unit, and an output unit. The slot information acquisition unit is configured to acquire advertising slot information managed by a corresponding media company for each media company with respect to multiple media companies.

[0009] The generation unit is configured to generate user-facing information, which is advertising space information in response to user inquiries entered through the user interface, based on the advertising space information acquired by the space information acquisition unit.

[0010] The output unit is configured to output user-facing information generated by the generation unit to the user through a user interface.

[0011] In this type of information processing system, advertising space information tailored to the user is generated and provided in response to the user's inquiry. Therefore, it is possible to provide users with advertising space information that is easier to understand than if the advertising space information obtained from each media company were provided to the user as is.

[0012] According to one aspect of this disclosure, the information processing system may further include a rule acquisition unit. The rule acquisition unit may be configured to acquire rules for interpreting the advertising space information of a corresponding media company for each media company. The generation unit may be configured to interpret the advertising space information for each media company in accordance with the rules and generate information for users.

[0013] By interpreting advertising space information according to established rules, it is possible to appropriately interpret advertising space information and generate user-facing information even when obtaining advertising space information in individual formats from each media company, without requiring each media company to provide advertising space information in a common format.

[0014] According to one aspect of this disclosure, the above rules may include rules for determining the availability of advertising space from the corresponding media company's advertising space information. The generating unit may be configured to determine the availability of advertising space related to the inquiry in accordance with the rules and generate user-facing information. The user-facing information may include information describing the availability of advertising space related to the inquiry.

[0015] With this information processing system, it is possible to appropriately provide users with information explaining the availability of advertising space from multiple media companies without requiring them to provide advertising space information in a common format.

[0016] According to one aspect of this disclosure, the generation unit may be configured to generate user-facing information by excluding unknown ad slots, which are ad slots whose availability cannot be determined, from the scope of explanation, or by indicating that the availability of unknown ad slots is unknown. With an information processing system configured in this way, the possibility of providing incorrect information regarding availability can be suppressed.

[0017] According to one aspect of this disclosure, the ad slot information acquisition unit may be configured to collect static information regarding ad slots managed by each media company without requiring an inquiry, and to acquire dynamic information regarding the availability of ad slots as ad slot information in response to an inquiry.

[0018] According to one aspect of the present disclosure, the generation unit may be configured to identify an advertising space related to an inquiry based on static information and acquire dynamic information about the related advertising space. According to the information processing system configured in this way, it is possible to reduce the amount of information to be acquired each time an inquiry is made, and it is possible to efficiently respond to the inquiry.

[0019] According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a computer program for causing a computer to function as at least a part of the frame information acquisition unit, the rule acquisition unit, the generation unit, and the output unit in the information processing system described above may be provided.

[0020] According to one aspect of the present disclosure, an information processing method corresponding to the information processing system described above may be provided. The information processing method may be executed by a computer.

[0021] According to one aspect of the present disclosure, for a plurality of media companies, an information processing method including acquiring advertising space information managed by a corresponding media company for each media company may be provided. The information processing method may further include generating user-oriented information, which is advertising space information responsive to an inquiry from a user input through a user interface, based on the acquired advertising space information. The information processing method may further include outputting the generated user-oriented information to the user side through the user interface. The information processing method configured in this way achieves the same effects as the information processing system described above. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0022] [Figure 1] It is a block diagram showing the configuration of an exemplary information processing system. [Figure 2] It is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of media company management data. [Figure 3] It is a diagram explaining a first example of advertising space information. [Figure 4] It is a diagram explaining a second example of advertising space information. [Figure 5] It is a diagram explaining a third example of advertising space information. [Figure 6] It is a diagram illustrating an example configuration of vehicle management data. [Figure 7] It is a functional block diagram for explaining functions implemented by a processor. [Figure 8] FIGS. 8A to 8C are diagrams illustrating an example of a response to a user inquiry. [Figure 9] It is a flowchart representing information generation processing executed by a processor. [Figure 10] It is a flowchart representing discrimination-related processing executed by a processor in a modification. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0023] Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below with reference to the drawings. The information processing system 10 of the present embodiment shown in FIG. 1 is configured to provide a user with information related to advertising spaces managed and sold by a plurality of media companies. The information provided includes the availability status of advertising spaces. The information processing system 10 is used, for example, by an advertiser or a person in charge at an advertising agency.

[0024] The plurality of media companies include two or more media companies that handle different media from each other. Examples of media include television (TV) broadcasting, radio broadcasting, OTT (Over-The-Top), magazines, newspapers, Internet media (including social media), and ODM (Outdoor Media). ODM is also referred to as OOH (Out Of Home) media, which means all media that consumers encounter outside their homes, and includes, for example, analog media such as posters in addition to digital signage installed in indoor and outdoor facilities (e.g., transportation facilities, commercial facilities, etc.).

[0025] The information processing system 10 is configured to communicate with multiple media company systems 30 and user information terminals 50. Each of the multiple media company systems 30 is configured to provide the information processing system 10 with information regarding advertising space managed and sold by the corresponding media company among the multiple media companies, as advertising space information. The advertising space information for each media company is managed by the corresponding media company and describes the availability of multiple advertising spaces managed and sold by the media company in the media company's own format (i.e., style).

[0026] The information processing system 10 is configured to understand the availability of advertising slots included in the advertising slot information of each media company, by interpreting the advertising slot information of each media company, which is written in a different format for each media company, based on rule data prepared for each media company, and to provide users with user-oriented information that organizes the availability of advertising slots.

[0027] The information processing system 10 is configured to receive inquiries from users through the user's information terminal 50 and to provide the information terminal 50 that initiated the inquiry with user-specific information corresponding to the inquiry.

[0028] As shown in Figure 1, the information processing system 10 comprises a processor 11, memory 13, storage 15, and a communication interface 19. The processor 11 executes processing according to the computer program stored in the storage 15.

[0029] Memory 13 is the main memory and is used as working memory when the processor 11 executes processing. Storage 15 is an auxiliary storage device such as a hard disk drive and a solid-state drive, and stores computer programs as well as various data used for processing executed by the processor 11.

[0030] The communication interface 19 is configured to communicate with external devices. Examples of external devices include a media company system 30 and an information terminal 50. Communication with external devices is achieved, for example, through a wide-area communication network such as the Internet.

[0031] Examples of information terminals 50 include a user's smartphone, tablet, and personal computer. The information terminal 50 includes a user interface 51. The user interface 51 includes a display device 51A and an input device 51B. The display device 51A is, for example, a liquid crystal display and is configured to output various information to the user. The input device 51B is configured to accept various input operations from the user. Examples of input devices 51B include a keyboard, a pointing device, and a touch panel.

[0032] The information terminal 50 is configured to access the information processing system 10 in accordance with instructions input by the user through the input device 51B, and to display a screen (for example, a graphical user interface (GUI) screen) based on instructions from the information processing system 10 on the display device 51A. The information terminal 50 is further configured to receive user operations through the input device 51B and input that operation information to the information processing system 10.

[0033] Figure 1 shows only one information terminal 50. However, the information processing system 10 is configured to accept access from multiple information terminals 50. For example, a user can access the information processing system 10 through an information terminal 50 to find out the availability of advertising slots.

[0034] The information terminal 50 transmits inquiries from users regarding the availability of advertising slots, which are entered through the user interface 51, to the information processing system 10, and operates to display user-facing information regarding availability provided by the information processing system 10 in response to the inquiry on the display device 51A.

[0035] Next, the details of the information processing system 10 will be explained. The information processing system 10 stores the media company management database 16 shown in Figure 2 in the storage 15 in order to acquire advertising space information for each media company. The media company management database 16 contains media company management data 160 for each media company.

[0036] The media company management data 160 includes, associated with the media company's identification information (i.e., media company ID), descriptive data about the media handled by the media company, the address from which advertising space information is obtained, and rule data. If a media company manages advertising space information individually for each type of media, media company management data 160 may be prepared for each type of media.

[0037] The descriptive data in the media company management data 160 describes, for example, the types of media handled by the media company. The acquisition address is the address of the media company system 30 where the advertising space information is provided. According to this embodiment, the advertising space information is basically provided by communication from the media company system 30, which is an information processing system operated by each media company.

[0038] However, it is also possible that media companies may provide advertising space information using analog media such as paper. In this case, the advertising space information on the analog media can be digitized by the company operating the information processing system 10.

[0039] For example, advertising space information is digitized by optical character recognition (OCR) processing. This digital data is provided to the information processing system 10 through the management system 70, or stored in the storage 15. The management system 70 may be a system managed by the operating company of the information processing system 10. In this case, the media company management data 160 may contain the address of the advertising space information provided by the management system 70 or the storage location of the advertising space information in the storage 15 as the acquisition address.

[0040] In addition, the rule data describes rules for interpreting advertising space information provided by media companies at the acquisition address. The rules include rules for interpreting information regarding the availability of advertising space included in the advertising space information and for determining the availability. That is, the rule data explains the rules for determining the availability from the advertising space information. This rule data may also be understood as data that explains rules for translating or reading the information regarding the availability of advertising space included in the advertising space information. Translating or reading may include reading the amount and / or degree of available space, or reading whether or not there is available space, from the information regarding the availability of advertising space included in the advertising space information. For example, the rule data may be created based on the legend included in the advertising space information. For example, the rule data may be created by the operating company of the information processing system 10 after human analysis of the rules.

[0041] Here, we will explain some examples of advertising slot information configurations using Figures 3, 4, and 5. The advertising slot information in the first example is configured as shown in Figure 3. The advertising slot information shown in Figure 3 is advertising slot information for a TV broadcasting station that sells spot commercial slots and time commercial slots as advertising slots. In this example, the advertising slot information has information for each vehicle indicating the time slot of the corresponding program, the broadcast day and time, the program name, the type of advertising slot, the price, and the availability status.

[0042] In the example in Figure 3, availability is represented by the symbols circles (○), triangles (△), and crosses (×). A circle indicates that there are plenty of advertising slots available for the corresponding vehicle. A triangle indicates that there are only a few advertising slots remaining for the corresponding vehicle. The triangles indicating vehicle availability, as explained in the first row of the table shown in Figure 3, mean that many of the multiple spot commercial slots between the corresponding programs are filled, and only a few spot commercial slots remain available. A cross means that there are no advertising slots available for the corresponding vehicle.

[0043] As this example shows, simply referring to ad slot information doesn't reveal what the symbols used to indicate availability—specifically, circles, triangles, and crosses—mean. Even using a large-scale language model (LLM), i.e., artificial intelligence, to interpret ad slot information accurately remains difficult.

[0044] The rule data provided to media companies that provide advertising space information in the first example describes the rules for interpreting these symbols. For example, it describes the rules for interpreting circle and triangle symbols as "available" and cross signals as "not available." This rule data further explains that the symbols indicate the availability of advertising space on vehicles that appear on the same line.

[0045] The advertising space information for the second example is structured as shown in Figure 4. The advertising space information shown in Figure 4 is advertising space information from a media company that sells advertising space on digital signage. This advertising space information expresses the availability of multiple digital signage displays, which are multiple vehicles, for each time period, by the number of available slots. According to the example shown in Figure 4, for the vehicle "Large Station Vision," there are 5 available slots in the morning, 20 available slots in the late morning, and 0 (zero) available slots in the midday period. In other words, there are no available advertising slots in the midday period.

[0046] The rule data provided to media companies that offer second-tier advertising space information explains that the numerical values ​​in each cell of the table enclosed by the header and side of the table represent the number of available advertising slots for the vehicle (digital signage) listed in the header of the same column, for the time slot listed on the side of the table in the same row.

[0047] The advertising space information for the third example is structured as shown in Figure 5. The advertising space information shown in Figure 5 indicates the availability of advertising spaces for each day of the week and time slot from Monday to Friday. This advertising space information represents the availability of each advertising space with a rectangular block border corresponding to the advertising space.

[0048] For example, this advertising slot information shows that there are available advertising slots within the drama program starting at 7 PM on Mondays, while the advertising slots between programs from 7:54 PM to 8 PM on Mondays are filled. This advertising slot information comes with a legend, and the rules for interpreting the availability are clear from the legend. That is, advertising slots represented by a solid black border are available, and advertising slots represented by a diagonal line border are not available. The legend further indicates that advertising slots with an unfilled rectangular block are advertising slots within programs, and advertising slots with a gray colored rectangular block are advertising slots between programs (so-called SB slots).

[0049] The rule data provided to media companies that offer third-party ad slot information describes the rules for interpreting availability according to this legend. This rule data further explains that the rows corresponding to the front side of the ad slot information show the available slots for each day of the week.

[0050] As such, the format of advertising space information provided by each media company varies, and the processor 11 interprets the advertising space information provided by each media company according to the rule data established for each media company, and provides the user with information explaining the availability of advertising space.

[0051] Furthermore, the information processing system 10 stores a vehicle management database 17 (see Figure 6), which is a database of vehicles owned by multiple media companies, in storage 15 in order to efficiently collect the latest information on availability necessary to respond to user inquiries. The vehicle management database 17 holds static information about multiple vehicles managed by multiple media companies.

[0052] The vehicle management database 17 illustrated in Figure 6 has vehicle management data 170 for each vehicle. The vehicle management data 170 has basic data and detailed data for the corresponding vehicle, associated with the identification information (i.e., vehicle ID) of the corresponding vehicle.

[0053] The basic data includes information that can identify the media company that owns the vehicle, the media type corresponding to the vehicle, and the address from which advertising space information related to the vehicle is obtained. For example, the basic data may include information that associates the vehicle management data 170 with the media company management data 160 of the corresponding media company.

[0054] The detailed data includes information on the delivery area and delivery time of advertisements through the vehicle's advertising space. In this embodiment, the advertising space includes commercial slots. The term "delivery" here should be understood broadly as including "broadcast."

[0055] The distribution area may be described by broadcasting areas or administrative divisions such as Tokyo. The distribution area may also be described by the attributes of advertising locations such as train stations and shopping malls. Distribution times may be described by parameters such as day of the week and time of day.

[0056] The detailed data may also include information other than the delivery area and delivery time, such as the form of the advertising material (e.g., still image material / video material), the distribution of the target audience exposed to the advertisement, key performance indicators (KPIs) related to advertising effectiveness such as the expected number of impressions, and / or the sales price range of the advertising space. Vehicle management data 170 containing such information is acquired before the user makes an inquiry and is stored in storage 15.

[0057] Next, the functions realized by the processor 11 executing the computer program stored in the storage 15 will be explained using Figure 7. As shown in Figure 7, the processor 11 functions as a static information collection unit 110 and an interaction unit 115 by executing the computer program.

[0058] The static information collection unit 110 is configured to collect static information for each vehicle managed by a media company for each media company, and to register the collected vehicle management data 170, including the static information of the vehicle, in the vehicle management database 17 for each vehicle, or to update the registered vehicle management data 170. The static information collection unit 110 can, for example, collect information periodically.

[0059] Dynamic information about a vehicle refers to information regarding the availability of advertising space within that vehicle. Static information about a vehicle, on the other hand, refers to fixed information that changes less over time than information regarding availability, and is comparable to information about other vehicles. For example, it includes information on the advertising delivery area, delivery time, display time per slot, expected acquisition KPI, measurement data, advertising format, advertising submission format, and qualitative characteristics of the vehicle. An example of expected acquisition KPI is the number of impressions that are expected to be acquired. An example of measurement data is target reach, target penetration rate, and target occupancy rate. Target penetration rate, etc., is an example of information regarding the distribution of demanders as described above. Advertising format refers to, for example, video and still images. Advertising format corresponds to the form of advertising material described above. Advertising submission format refers to, for example, data format and physical format. Qualitative characteristics of a vehicle refer to characteristic information such as the location of the vehicle, such as the fact that the Shibuya area has many young people.

[0060] The static information collection unit 110 can collect advertising space information, including static vehicle information, from the respective media company systems 30 of multiple media companies and update the vehicle management database 17. Alternatively, the vehicle management data 170 may be manually generated by the operating company of the information processing system 10. The static information collection unit 110 may also obtain the latest vehicle management data 170 generated by the operating company from the operating company's management system 70 and update the vehicle management database 17.

[0061] On the other hand, the dialogue unit 115 is configured to perform processing to realize natural language dialogue with the user through communication with the information terminal 50. The dialogue unit 115 analyzes the input sentence from the user using, for example, a large-scale language model (LLM), and generates a response sentence to the input sentence. The dialogue unit 115 transmits the generated response sentence to the information terminal 50 and displays it on the display device 51A of the information terminal 50, thereby realizing dialogue with the user in a chat format.

[0062] If the input from the user includes an inquiry about the availability of advertising space, the dialogue unit 115 generates user-facing information in response to that inquiry based on advertising space information obtained from the media company system 30, and sends a response containing the user-facing information to the information terminal 50.

[0063] For example, when the dialogue unit 115 receives an input message from a user that includes an inquiry about availability specifying the distribution area and time slot, such as "Please tell me about available slots in the Kanto area from 9 to 10" (see Figure 8A), it sends a response message to the information terminal 50 that includes a list of available slots matching the specified distribution area and time slot as user information, such as "Here are the available slots in the Kanto area from 9 to 10: XX TV station: ad slot a1, XX station signage: ad slot b1." Here, "ad slot a1" is a simplified expression, and it should be understood that the actual response message will include detailed information about ad slot a1. The detailed information should be understood to include information necessary for considering advertising placement, such as the type of ad slot and price range. Ad slot a1, etc., may also have a link to a details page.

[0064] As an alternative example, when the dialogue unit 115 receives an input message that includes an inquiry about availability specifying the distribution period and the form of the advertising material, such as "Please tell me which slots are available for posting still image materials from April 1st to April 14th" (see Figure 8B), it responds to this inquiry by sending a response message to the information terminal 50 that includes a list of available slots that match the specified distribution period and the form of the advertising material, as user-facing information, such as "Here are the slots available for posting still image materials from April 1st to April 14th. Web media A: advertising slots a1, a2, Railway B: advertising slots b2, b3, Magazine C: advertising slots c5, c6."

[0065] In addition, when the dialogue unit 115 receives an input requesting a list of available slots for a specified period, such as "Output a list of available slots for Railway A in April in spreadsheet format" (see Figure 8C), it sends a response message to the information terminal 50 that includes a spreadsheet containing the list of available slots as user information, such as "We have compiled a list of available slots for Railway A in April into a spreadsheet. Please download it using the download button."

[0066] Next, the processing performed by the processor 11 as an interactive unit 115 to generate user-facing information in response to user inquiries will be explained using Figure 9. When the processor 11 determines that the user's input includes an inquiry about the availability of advertising slots, it executes the information generation process shown in Figure 9.

[0067] When the information generation process is started, the processor 11 extracts a group of vehicles related to the query as the target vehicle group from a group of vehicles belonging to multiple media companies (S110).

[0068] Specifically, the processor 11 refers to the vehicle management database 17 and extracts a group of vehicles that have advertising slots that satisfy the conditions specified by the user inquiry as the target vehicle group. The target vehicle group is the group of vehicles whose advertising slot availability should be investigated.

[0069] For example, the processor 11 can search the vehicle management database 17 for a group of vehicles that meet the conditions specified by the query, such as the delivery area, delivery time, and / or the form of the advertising material, and extract them as the target group of vehicles.

[0070] As shown in Figure 8A, when "available slots between 9 and 10 am in the Kanto area" are specified, processor 11 identifies a group of vehicles whose delivery area includes the Kanto area and whose delivery time includes 9 and 10 am as the target vehicle group. The processing in S110 corresponds to identifying a group of vehicles that have advertising slots related to the user's inquiry as the target vehicle group, based on the static information of the vehicles contained in the vehicle management database 17.

[0071] In the subsequent S120, the processor 11 identifies one or more media companies that possess the target vehicle group as media companies from which information will be acquired. For each media company from which information will be acquired, the processor 11 acquires advertising space information, including the availability of advertising space for the target vehicles owned by that media company, from the corresponding media company.

[0072] This allows the processor 11 to obtain information on the latest availability of the target vehicle group. By narrowing down the information acquisition target to the media companies among multiple media companies and obtaining advertising space information from the corresponding media company systems 30, the processor 11 can efficiently obtain information on the latest availability of the target vehicle group.

[0073] Thus, in order to efficiently collect information, the processor 11 does not communicate with media company systems 30 that do not have vehicles belonging to the target vehicle group to obtain information on vehicle availability. As a result, the processor 11 selectively collects information on the availability of vehicles related to user inquiries, and efficiently and quickly collects the necessary information.

[0074] After obtaining the advertising space information in S120, the processor 11 selects one of the media companies that has vehicles belonging to the target group of vehicles (S130), and obtains the corresponding media company's rule data from the media company management database 16 in order to interpret the advertising space information of the selected media company (S140).

[0075] In the subsequent S150, the processor 11, as part of the availability determination process, determines the availability of advertising slots in the target vehicle whose availability is recorded in the advertising slot information of the selected media company, according to the rule data.

[0076] This determination can be achieved using a Large-Scale Language Model (LLM) as described above. For example, processor 11 can provide the LLM with a prompt incorporating rule data as an instruction, and obtain the availability determination result from the LLM. The LLM can refer to the provided rule data, understand the meaning of symbols such as ○△×, and further understand the relationship between the symbols ○△× listed in the advertising space information and the vehicle, and determine the availability of advertising space for each vehicle. The prompt can include instructions to control the behavior of the LLM in this way.

[0077] In the subsequent S160, the processor 11 determines whether or not it has performed the availability determination process for all of the target vehicle group. If it determines that it has not performed the determination process for all of the target vehicle group (No in S160), the processor 11 selects the next media company (S130), and based on the advertising space information and rule data of the selected media company, it determines the availability of advertising space in the target vehicle owned by that media company according to the rule data (S140, S150).

[0078] When processor 11 determines that it has performed the availability determination process for all of the target vehicle group (Yes in S160), it generates user-facing information explaining the availability of advertising slots related to the user's inquiry, based on the availability of advertising slots in the target vehicle group determined by the determination process in S150 (S170). For example, processor 11 generates user-facing information listing the information of vehicles that have available slots (S170). For example, the format of the user-facing information may be determined for each type of user inquiry.

[0079] For example, as shown in Figure 8A, the processor 11 generates a list of available slots in response to inquiries such as "XX TV station: ad slot a1, XX station signage: ad slot b1" as user-facing information. For example, as shown in Figure 8C, a spreadsheet containing the list of available slots is generated as user-facing information.

[0080] In the subsequent S180, the processor 11 generates a response statement containing the user-specific information generated in S170 as a response to the user's input statement, and sends it to the user's information terminal 50. As a result, the processor 11 displays the user-specific information on the display device 51A of the information terminal 50.

[0081] According to the information processing system 10 of this embodiment described above, the processor 11 is configured to acquire advertising space information managed by a corresponding media company for each media company with respect to multiple media companies (S120), generate user-oriented information which is advertising space information in response to inquiries from users input through the information terminal 50 as a user interface based on the acquired advertising space information (S170), and output the user-oriented information to the user side through the information terminal 50 (S180).

[0082] In particular, according to this information processing system 10, even if each advertising slot information is written in a format unique to the media company, rule data for interpretation is prepared for each media company so that the information regarding the availability of advertising slots included in the advertising slot information can be accurately interpreted. For example, the processor 11 reads this rule data from the storage 15 and provides it to the LLM to achieve an accurate interpretation of the availability status and generates user-oriented information that organizes and explains the availability of advertising slots in response to user inquiries.

[0083] Thus, according to the information processing system 10 of this embodiment, it is possible to provide users with easy-to-understand and accurate information on advertising slots in response to their inquiries, without requiring each media company to provide advertising slot information in a common format. Therefore, the technology disclosed herein is very useful for building a platform that handles advertising slots from multiple media companies.

[0084] Furthermore, according to this embodiment, vehicle management data 170 for each vehicle is prepared in advance so that it is not necessary to search for advertising space information of all media companies and generate user-oriented information when a user makes an inquiry. The processor 11 collects static information regarding the advertising space of vehicles managed by the corresponding media company for each media company, without receiving an inquiry from a user, and registers and updates the vehicle management data 170 in the vehicle management database 17 (static information collection unit 110). After narrowing down the vehicles that match the user's inquiry, the processor 11 obtains information on their availability (S110, S120).

[0085] Therefore, according to this embodiment, the amount of information that needs to be acquired each time a user makes an inquiry can be reduced compared to collecting all advertising space information each time an inquiry is made, and responses to inquiries can be made more efficiently.

[0086] [Differentiation] In the embodiments described above, it is assumed that availability can be accurately determined based on rule data. However, environments may arise where rule data is missing or where availability cannot be accurately determined based on rule data due to format changes.

[0087] Considering this environment, the processing at S150 in Figure 9 may be replaced with the discrimination-related processing shown in Figure 10. In this modified example, the processor 11 executes the discrimination-related processing shown in Figure 10 at S150 in Figure 9. The information processing system 10 of this modified example is basically configured the same as the information processing system 10 of the above embodiment, except for the processing at S150 and S170.

[0088] Therefore, in the following description of the modified information processing system 10, we will selectively explain the discrimination-related processing (S150) and S170 shown in Figure 10.

[0089] When processor 11 starts the discrimination-related processing shown in Figure 10 in S150, it determines whether or not it succeeded in reading the rule data (S151). If processor 11 determines that it failed to read the rule data (No in S151), it excludes the media company's vehicle corresponding to this rule data from the display of availability (S152).

[0090] On the other hand, if the processor 11 determines that it has successfully read the rule data (Yes in S151), it interprets the advertising space information of the corresponding media company according to the rule data and determines the availability of advertising space on the target vehicle owned by that media company (S153). In S153, the processor 11 further evaluates the reliability, or in other words, the accuracy, of the determination result.

[0091] In the subsequent S154, the processor 11 excludes from the display of availability any target vehicles whose determined availability confidence level is lower than a threshold. The processor 11 also excludes any target vehicles from the display of availability if it was unable to determine availability in S153. In this way, the processor 11 determines the availability of advertising slots in target vehicles according to the rule data, but excludes vehicles with low confidence levels or availability that could not be determined from the display (S152, S154). Confidence levels can be calculated based on, for example, the update frequency of the rule data or the last update date and time. When determining availability through LLM, the processor 11 can request the reliability of the determination result along with the availability determination result from LLM and obtain reliability information from LLM.

[0092] Processor 11 performs such discrimination-related processing for each media company in S150. Then, in S170, Processor 11 generates user-facing information according to the discrimination results in S150. However, for vehicles excluded from the display target, Processor 11 does not list the advertising space of these vehicles as available, regardless of the availability discrimination result. Processor 11 generates user-facing information listing the information of vehicles with available space only for vehicles that are not excluded from the display target.

[0093] Alternatively, in S170, for vehicles excluded from the display, user-facing information is generated that explicitly states that the vehicle's availability is unknown.

[0094] For example, the processor 11 can generate user-facing information such as the following: "<Available>" XX TV Station: Advertisement slot a1 XX Station Digital Signage: Advertisement Space B1 <Availability unknown> "Signage for XX Commercial Facilities"

[0095] In this modified version, the processor 11 generates user-facing information by excluding unknown ad slots, which are ad slots whose availability cannot be determined, from the description in the user-facing information, or by indicating that the availability of unknown ad slots is unknown. According to the information processing system 10 of this modified version, appropriate ad slot information can be provided to the user even in situations where it is not possible to determine the availability of ad slots.

[0096] [Other embodiments] This disclosure is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various forms can be adopted. For example, the information processing system 10 may be configured as a system that handles commercial slots for multiple TV broadcasting stations that handle a single type of medium (TV broadcasting), acting as multiple media companies. In other words, the information processing system 10 is not limited to a system that handles multiple media.

[0097] Furthermore, interaction with users is not limited to a chat format. For example, interaction with users may be conducted via voice. That is, the information processing system 10 may be configured to acquire input text via voice and output response text via voice.

[0098] In addition, the information processing system 10 can respond to various user inquiries, not limited to the examples shown in Figures 8A-8C. For example, user inquiries may include inquiries specifying media companies. One example of such an inquiry might be, "Please tell me the availability of media company A from [date] to [date]." In this case, the information processing system 10 can generate and output a list of advertising slots for media companies, along with information on their availability, as user-facing information.

[0099] In the above embodiment, user-facing information explaining the availability of advertising slots was generated at a granularity that corresponds to the user's inquiry. However, user-facing information explaining the availability of advertising slots at a more detailed granularity than the inquiry may also be generated. As shown in the example in Figure 8A, in the list of available slots in the Kanto area from 9:00 to 10:00, detailed availability times for each available slot may be included. For example, with respect to advertising slot a1, if only the advertising slot from 9:30 to 9:40 is available within the 9:00 to 10:00 timeframe, information indicating that only the advertising slot from 9:30 to 9:40 is available for advertising slot a1 may be included as supplementary information.

[0100] The function of one component in the above embodiment may be distributed among multiple components. The functions of multiple components may be integrated into one component. Some parts of the configuration of the above embodiment may be omitted. At least some parts of the configuration of the above embodiment may be added to or replaced by the configuration of other above embodiments. Any aspect of the technical concept specified by the wording of the claims constitutes an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Explanation of Symbols]

[0101] 10... Information processing system, 11... Processor, 13... Memory, 15... Storage, 16... Media company management database, 17... Vehicle management database, 19... Communication interface, 30... Media company system, 50... Information terminal, 51... User interface, 51A... Display device, 51B... Input device, 70... Management system, 110... Static information collection unit, 115... Dialogue unit, 160... Media company management data, 170... Vehicle management data.

Claims

1. A slot information acquisition unit is configured to acquire advertising slot information managed by each media company for each media company, with respect to multiple media companies. A rule acquisition unit is configured to acquire rules for interpreting the advertising space information of the corresponding media company for each media company. A generation unit is configured to generate user-facing information, which is advertising space information in response to inquiries from users input through a user interface, based on the advertising space information acquired by the aforementioned space information acquisition unit. An output unit configured to output the user-facing information generated by the generation unit to the user side through the user interface, Equipped with, The aforementioned rules include rules for determining the availability of advertising space from the advertising space information of the corresponding media company. The generation unit is configured to interpret the advertising space information for each media company in accordance with the rules, determine the availability of advertising space related to the inquiry, and generate the user-facing information. The aforementioned user information is an information processing system that includes information explaining the availability of advertising space related to the aforementioned inquiry.

2. The generation unit generates the user information by excluding the unknown slots, which are advertising slots whose availability cannot be determined, from the scope of explanation, or by indicating that the availability of the unknown slots is unknown. The information processing system according to claim 1.

3. The information processing system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the slot information acquisition unit acquires static information relating to advertising slots managed by the corresponding media company for each media company without the inquiry, and acquires dynamic information relating to the availability of the advertising slots as advertising slot information in response to the inquiry.

4. The information processing system according to claim 3, wherein the generation unit determines the advertising slots related to the inquiry based on the static information and obtains the dynamic information for the related advertising slots.

5. A computer program for causing a computer to function as the frame information acquisition unit, the rule acquisition unit, the generation unit, and the output unit in the information processing system according to claim 1 or claim 2.

6. A method of information processing performed by a computer, For multiple media companies, obtain advertising space information managed by each media company, For each of the aforementioned media companies, obtain the rules for interpreting the advertising space information of the corresponding media company, Based on the acquired advertising space information, user-facing information, which is advertising space information in response to inquiries from users entered through the user interface, The generated user information is output to the user through the user interface, Includes, The aforementioned rules include rules for determining the availability of advertising space from the advertising space information of the corresponding media company. The above generation includes interpreting the advertising space information for each media company in accordance with the above rules, determining the availability of advertising space related to the inquiry, and generating the user-facing information. The aforementioned user information includes an information processing method that describes the availability of advertising space related to the aforementioned inquiry.

7. The generation includes generating user information by excluding unknown slots, which are advertising slots whose availability cannot be determined, from the subject of explanation, or by indicating that the availability of such unknown slots is unknown. The information processing method according to claim 6.

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