Apparatus and method for providing emotional care service to customers visiting a store

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a system for providing emotional care services to customers visiting a cafe. According to the present disclosure, an emotional care device receives preference information regarding the content of a customer's preferences and customer information regarding the characteristics of said customer; in response to the reception of said customer information, acquires environmental information regarding the characteristics of a store and visit information regarding the customer's visit history; generates state information regarding the customer's stable state by considering the customer's health state according to said customer information and the level of physical exhaustion according to said environmental information; generates analysis information regarding a store environment recommended to said customer from said customer information, said visit information, said state information, and said environmental information; and applies said analysis information to said preference information to generate emotional care information regarding the in-store environment to be provided to said customer.

Description

Technology Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a system for providing emotional care services to customers visiting stores, such as cafes, and more specifically, to an apparatus and method for creating a customized store environment for customers by considering the characteristics of the customer and the store environment in an emotional care system. Background Technology

[0003] As competition intensifies in the café market, the industry is introducing various services to differentiate the customer experience. Beyond simply providing beverages, personalized supplementary services are emerging as a key element of store competitiveness. To deliver these customized services, vendors are researching various strategies to increase customer loyalty and return rates by rapidly identifying diverse customer needs and preferences and providing differentiated experiences based on them. Notably, strategies utilizing artificial intelligence and data analysis technologies to analyze customer preferences, visit history, and purchasing patterns in real time to provide individualized services are being actively applied. This approach to predicting customer behavior and implementing personalized marketing directly contributes to increased sales and improved operational efficiency.

[0004] Currently, big data analysis technology faces several challenges in terms of providing services to customers visiting stores. Notably, technologies used to analyze customer characteristics in cafes tend to rely primarily on limited data, such as membership information. This limited data has limitations in that it fails to adequately reflect qualitative factors, such as the actual psychology, tendencies, and purposes of visit of customers. Furthermore, cafe customers are highly diverse in terms of age, occupation, lifestyle, and purpose of visit, and their tendencies change depending on the time of day or season. However, existing analysis technologies are unable to precisely reflect these situational and personal variability in real-time, making it difficult to derive uniform and generalized analysis results. Consequently, there have been issues with failing to identify customers' detailed tendencies or deep-seated needs.

[0005] Nevertheless, as the need for customer-tailored services in cafes continues to expand in various aspects—such as enhancing customer satisfaction, building a differentiated brand image, and increasing operational efficiency and sales—there is a demand for the development of technologies for analyzing more sophisticated customized services using customer data and AI technology.

[0006] The aforementioned technology is technical information that the inventor possessed for the derivation of the present invention or acquired during the process of deriving the present invention, and does not necessarily refer to known technology disclosed to the general public prior to the filing of the present invention. Prior art literature

[0008] Published Patent Application No. 10-2024-0009213 (January 22, 2024) Registered Patent Application No. 10-2338381 (December 13, 2021) The problem to be solved

[0009] Based on the discussion above, the present disclosure provides an apparatus and method for providing emotional care services to customers visiting a store such as a cafe.

[0010] In addition, the present disclosure provides an apparatus and method for creating a customized store environment for customers by taking into account the characteristics of the customer and the store environment in an emotional care system.

[0011] In addition, the present disclosure provides an apparatus and method for verifying a customer's stability by considering environmental information regarding the customer's health condition and the service provision environment in an emotional care system.

[0012] In addition, the present disclosure provides an apparatus and method for analyzing a store environment recommended to a customer in consideration of the customer's stability state in an emotional care system.

[0013] In addition, the present disclosure provides an apparatus and method for generating information for customer emotional care by considering analysis results regarding recommended store environments in an emotional care system. means of solving the problem

[0015] According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, a method of operating an emotional care device may include: receiving preference information regarding the content of a customer's preferences and customer information regarding the characteristics of said customer; obtaining, in response to the reception of said customer information, environmental information regarding the characteristics of a store and visit information regarding the customer's visit history; generating state information regarding the stable state of said customer by considering the health state of said customer according to said customer information and the level of physical exhaustion according to said environmental information; generating analysis information regarding a store environment recommended to said customer from said customer information, said visit information, said state information, and said environmental information; and applying said analysis information to said preference information to generate emotional care information regarding the in-store environment to be provided to said customer.

[0016] According to another embodiment, the customer information includes the customer's name, gender, age, occupation, family composition, relationship with companions, degree of trend sensitivity, presence of pets, and health survey responses, and the environmental information includes weather information and store location information, the weather information includes temperature, humidity, weather, and season, and the store location information may include the altitude of the store and walking distance from the nearest station.

[0017] According to another embodiment, the step of generating the state information includes calculating the basic physical stability level and basic emotional stability level of the customer based on the health survey response, calculating the physical exhaustion level regarding the physical energy consumed by the customer while moving to the store based on weather information and store location in the environment information, and generating the state information by applying the physical exhaustion level to the basic physical stability level and the basic emotional stability level, wherein the physical stability level and emotional stability level included in the state information may be expressed as a numerical value greater than 0 and less than 10.

[0018] According to another embodiment, the step of generating the analysis information may include: selecting candidate customers among other customers by considering the status information; generating a customer matrix by listing the customer information, the visit information, and the weather information, and generating candidate matrices by listing candidate customer information, candidate visit information, and candidate weather information regarding the characteristics of the candidate customers; selecting a comparison customer among the candidate customers who has the highest level of association with the customer based on the distance between each of the candidate matrices and the customer matrix; and generating the analysis information based on the comparison customer's usage history regarding the store.

[0019] According to another embodiment, the emotional care information includes content information regarding content to be displayed on a display terminal provided at a table where the customer is located, lighting information regarding lighting control of the area where the customer is located, and fragrance information regarding fragrance control within the area. The step of generating the emotional care information may include: a step of generating selection information by extracting content images, types of perfume, and whether editing is required from each of the preference information and the analysis information; a step of generating calculation information by calculating the volume, illuminance, color temperature, and concentration of perfume of the content based on an average calculation from each of the preference information and the analysis information; and a step of generating emotional care information regarding content, lighting, and fragrance to be provided to the customer by combining the selection information and the calculation information.

[0020] Various aspects and features of the invention are defined in the appended claims. Combinations of features of the dependent claims may be appropriately combined with features of the independent claims, not only as explicitly presented in the claims.

[0021] Additionally, one or more selected features of any one embodiment described in this disclosure may be combined with one or more selected features of any other embodiment described in this disclosure, and such alternative combination of features is possible if it at least partially alleviates one or more technical problems discussed in this disclosure or at least partially alleviates technical problems discernible from this disclosure by a person skilled in the art, and furthermore, such combination is possible if the specific combination or permutation of the embodiment features thus formed is not understood by a person skilled in the art to be incompatible.

[0022] In any described example implementation, two or more physically distinct components may alternatively be integrated into a single component if such integration is possible, provided that the same function is performed by the single component thus formed. Conversely, a single component of any embodiment described in this disclosure may alternatively be implemented by two or more distinct components that achieve the same function, where appropriate.

[0023] The objective of certain embodiments of the present invention is to solve, mitigate, or eliminate at least one of the problems and / or disadvantages associated with the prior art, at least partially. Certain embodiments are intended to provide at least one of the advantages described below. Effects of the invention

[0025] The apparatus and method according to various embodiments of the present disclosure enable the provision of emotional care services to customers visiting stores such as cafes.

[0026] In addition, the apparatus and method according to various embodiments of the present disclosure enable the creation of a customer-customized store environment by taking into account the characteristics of the customer and the store environment in an emotional care system.

[0027] In addition, the apparatus and method according to various embodiments of the present disclosure enable the verification of a customer's stable state by considering environmental information regarding the customer's health state and the service provision environment in an emotional care system.

[0028] In addition, the apparatus and method according to various embodiments of the present disclosure enable sophisticated analysis of the store environment recommended to a customer in consideration of the customer's stable state in an emotional care system.

[0029] In addition, the apparatus and method according to various embodiments of the present disclosure enable the generation of information for customer emotional care by considering the analysis results regarding the recommended store environment in an emotional care system.

[0030] In addition, the apparatus and method according to various embodiments of the present disclosure enable the support of customer emotional care and the improvement of store profits by providing customer-tailored emotional care services in an emotional care system.

[0031] The effects obtainable from the present disclosure are not limited to those mentioned above, and other unmentioned effects will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art to which the present disclosure belongs from the description below. Brief explanation of the drawing

[0033] The accompanying drawings, included as part of the detailed description to aid in understanding the embodiments, provide various embodiments and explain the technical features of the various embodiments together with the detailed description. FIG. 1 illustrates an emotional care system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 2 illustrates the configuration of an emotional care device in an emotional care system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram regarding the process of an emotional care device generating emotional care information in an emotional care system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart relating to a method of operation of an emotional care system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart regarding the operation method of an emotional care device in an emotional care system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. Specific details for implementing the invention

[0034] The terms used in this disclosure are used merely to describe specific embodiments and are not intended to limit the scope of other embodiments. A singular expression may include a plural expression unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. Terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, may have the same meaning as generally understood by those skilled in the art described in this disclosure. Terms used in this disclosure that are defined in a general dictionary may be interpreted as having the same or similar meaning as they have in the context of the relevant technology, and are not to be interpreted in an ideal or overly formal sense unless explicitly defined in this disclosure. In some cases, even terms defined in this disclosure are not to be interpreted to exclude the embodiments of this disclosure.

[0035] In the various embodiments of the present disclosure described below, a hardware-based approach is described as an example. However, since the various embodiments of the present disclosure include techniques using both hardware and software, the various embodiments of the present disclosure do not exclude a software-based approach.

[0036] The present disclosure relates to a system for providing emotional care services to customers visiting stores such as cafes. Specifically, the present disclosure describes a technology for creating a customized store environment for customers by considering the characteristics of the customer and the store environment in an emotional care system.

[0037] Hereinafter, various embodiments are described in detail with reference to the attached drawings so that those skilled in the art can easily implement the present disclosure. However, since the technical concept of the present disclosure can be modified and implemented in various forms, it is not limited to the embodiments described in this specification. In describing the embodiments disclosed in this specification, if it is determined that specifically describing related prior art could obscure the essence of the technical concept of the present disclosure, such specific description of prior art is omitted. Identical or similar components are assigned the same reference number, and redundant descriptions thereof are omitted.

[0038] When an element is described in this specification as being "connected" to another element, this includes not only cases where they are "directly connected" but also cases where they are "indirectly connected" with another element in between. When an element is described as "comprising" another element, this means that, unless specifically stated otherwise, it does not exclude other elements in addition to the other elements but may include additional elements.

[0039] Some embodiments may be described by functional block configurations and various processing steps. Some or all of these functional blocks may be implemented by various numbers of hardware and / or software configurations that perform specific functions. For example, the functional blocks of the present disclosure may be implemented by one or more microprocessors or by circuit configurations for a specific function. The functional blocks of the present disclosure may be implemented in various programming or scripting languages. The functional blocks of the present disclosure may be implemented as algorithms executed on one or more processors. The functions performed by the functional blocks of the present disclosure may be performed by a plurality of functional blocks, or the functions performed by a plurality of functional blocks in the present disclosure may be performed by a single functional block. Additionally, the present disclosure may employ prior art for electronic configuration, signal processing, and / or data processing, etc.

[0040] Additionally, in this disclosure, expressions such as "greater than" or "less than" have been used to determine whether specific conditions are satisfied or fulfilled; however, this is merely for illustrative purposes and does not exclude descriptions of "greater than" or "less than." Conditions described as "greater than" may be replaced with "greater than," conditions described as "less than" with "less than," and conditions described as "greater than and less than" with "greater than and less than."

[0041] Additionally, in the present disclosure, an image refers to an image conceptualized to visually capture information by a light beam or medium arranged in a plane or space. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, an image may include still images and video images.

[0043] People experience stress due to various causes such as excessive competition, wealth disparity, anxiety, anger, and depression. Emotional solutions are required to relieve this stress, and in terms of emotional solutions, tears are often more effective than laughter. When a person sheds tears, various neurotransmitters such as endorphins, serotonin, and NK-PAL are released. In particular, NK-PAL is a neuropeptide hormone released along with endorphins when crying, and it helps relieve stress through its analgesic effect.

[0044] The emotional care system according to the present disclosure is intended to enable the relief of emotions suppressed in the unconscious of customers visiting a store, and can support the healing of customers' emotions by inducing tears tailored to the customer's characteristics, such as tears of sadness or tears of joy and ecstasy. Below, a technology for caring for emotions by creating a customized store atmosphere based on an analysis of customer characteristics is described.

[0046] FIG. 1 illustrates an emotional care system (100) according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0047] The emotional care system (100) directs a system that provides customized content to stimulate the customer's emotions and creates a store environment by considering the characteristics of customers visiting a store such as a cafe and the service provision environment within the store. Specifically, the emotional care system (100) directs a system that supports the customer to feel comfortable by analyzing the customer's state of stability based on characteristics such as the customer and the environment, and by selecting and providing content, lighting, and scent within the store according to the customer's state of stability. A manager managing the store can analyze the customer's state of stability in accordance with the customer's visit to the store to verify customized services, and the customer can visit the store and receive customized services. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the emotional care system (100) may include a customer terminal (110), a display terminal (120), a manager terminal (130), a management server (140), an emotional care device (150), and a network (170).

[0048] The customer terminal (110) indicates an electronic device operated by a customer visiting the store. The customer may indicate a visitor visiting the cafe and may input information related to the customer's characteristics through the customer terminal (110). The customer terminal (110) may generate customer information based on the customer's input and transmit it externally. For example, the customer terminal (110) may provide a health survey to the customer by displaying it on a display using an installed application, and may generate customer information by collecting responses to the health survey by recording responses based on the customer's input. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the customer terminal (110) may include a fixed terminal implemented as a computer device or a mobile terminal. Specifically, the customer terminal (110) may indicate a smartphone, a mobile phone, a navigation device, a computer, a laptop, a digital broadcasting terminal, a PDA (personal digital assistant), a PMP (portable multimedia player), or a tablet PC.

[0049] The display terminal (120) indicates a terminal that displays content related to emotional care services on a display. The display terminal (120) may be installed in a fixed or movable manner at a location where it can be viewed on a table used by a customer, and may provide content to the customer by displaying content received from the outside or stored on the display. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the display terminal (120) may indicate a fixed or movable monitor that performs the function of displaying content.

[0050] The manager terminal (130) directs the electronic device operated by the manager of the store. The manager directs the seller who provides beverage service in the store and can conduct customer analysis through the manager terminal (130). The manager terminal (130) can support overall operational management within the store by generating data necessary for customer analysis based on the manager's input or by generating a signal that commands the operation of customer analysis. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the manager terminal (130) may also include a fixed terminal implemented as a computer device or a mobile terminal.

[0051] The management server (140) directs an electronic device that stores data necessary for the process of generating customer-customized emotional care information. The management server (140) may store data such as weather conditions or analysis information regarding other customers, and may perform the function of transmitting requested data to the emotional care device (150) upon the request of the emotional care device (150). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the management server (140) may be implemented as a computer device or a plurality of computer devices that provide commands, codes, files, content, services, etc.

[0052] The emotional care device (150) indicates a device operated by a manager during the process of conducting an analysis to provide emotional care services. The emotional care device (150) can perform an analysis regarding a customer who has entered the store in response to a request from the manager terminal (130). The emotional care device (150) can support the customer in receiving emotional care services by generating emotional care information to stimulate the customer's emotions through the analysis of the customer and transmitting this information to the manager terminal (130) or the display terminal (120). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the emotional care device (150) may also include a fixed terminal or a mobile terminal implemented as a computer device.

[0053] As illustrated in FIG. 1, the components of the emotional care system (100) can be connected via a network (170). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the network (170) refers to a connection structure capable of exchanging information between each node, such as a plurality of terminals and servers. Examples of such networks include, but are not limited to, RF, 3GPP (3rd generation partnership project) networks, LTE (long term evolution) networks, 5GPP (5th generation partnership project) networks, WIMAX (world interoperability for microwave access) networks, the internet, LAN (local area network), Wireless LAN (wireless local area network), WAN (wide area network), PAN (personal area network), Bluetooth networks, NFC networks, satellite broadcasting networks, analog broadcasting networks, DMB (digital multimedia broadcasting) networks, etc.

[0054] According to the emotional care system (100), when a customer possessing a customer terminal (110) visits a store, the manager can start an analysis of the customer using the manager terminal (130). Upon receiving a request from the manager terminal (130), the emotional care device (150) collects data from at least one of the customer terminal (110), the manager terminal (130), and the management server (140), and can generate emotional care information related to controlling the environment within the store through the analysis of the collected data. The manager can provide emotional care services to the customer based on the generated emotional care information, thereby providing customized emotional care services. The specific configuration and operation of the emotional care device (150) are described in detail below.

[0056] FIG. 2 illustrates the configuration (200) of an emotional care device (150) in an emotional care system (100) according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0057] Terms such as '...part', '...unit' used below refer to a unit that processes at least one function or operation, and this may be implemented as hardware or software, or a combination of hardware and software. The emotional care device (150) may include a memory (210), a processor (220), a communication unit (230), an input / output interface (240), and a display unit (250).

[0058] The memory (210) temporarily or permanently stores data such as basic programs, application programs, and setting information for the operation of the emotional care device (150). The memory (210) may include a non-perishable permanent mass storage device such as RAM (random access memory), ROM (read only memory), and a disk drive, but the present invention is not limited thereto. These software components may be loaded from a computer-readable recording medium separate from the memory (210) using a drive mechanism. This separate computer-readable recording medium may include computer-readable recording media such as a floppy drive, disk, tape, DVD / CD-ROM drive, or memory card. According to an embodiment, the software components may be loaded into the memory (210) through a communication unit (230) rather than a computer-readable recording medium. Additionally, the memory (210) may provide stored data upon the request of the processor (220).

[0059] The processor (220) controls the overall operations of the emotional care device (150). For example, the processor (220) can control the transmission and reception of signals through the communication unit (230). Additionally, the processor (220) can be configured to process instructions of a computer program by performing basic arithmetic, logic, and input / output operations. Instructions may be provided to the processor (220) by the memory (210) or the communication unit (230). For example, the processor (220) can be configured to execute instructions received according to program code stored in a recording device such as the memory (210). For example, the processor (220) can control the emotional care device (150) to perform operations according to various embodiments described below.

[0060] According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a processor (220) receives preference information regarding the content of a customer's preferences and customer information regarding the characteristics of the customer, and in response to the receipt of customer information, obtains environment information regarding the characteristics of a store and visit information regarding the customer's visit history, and generates state information regarding the customer's stable state by considering the customer's health state according to the customer information and the level of physical exhaustion according to the environment information, generates analysis information regarding the store environment recommended to the customer from the customer information, visit information, state information, and environment information, and controls to generate emotional care information regarding the in-store environment to be provided to the customer by applying the analysis information to the preference information.

[0061] The communication unit (230) performs functions for transmitting and receiving signals through a wireless channel. All or part of the communication unit (230) may be referred to as a transmitting unit, a receiving unit, or a transmitting and receiving unit. The communication unit (230) may provide a function for the emotional care device (150) and at least one other node to communicate with each other through a communication network. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, when the processor (220) of the emotional care device (150) generates a request signal according to program code stored in a recording device such as a memory (210), the request signal may be transmitted to at least one other node through a communication network under the control of the communication unit (230). Conversely, a control signal, command, content, file, etc. provided under the control of the processor of at least one other node may be received by the emotional care device (150) through the communication unit (230).

[0062] The input / output interface (240) may be a means for interfacing with an input / output device (not shown). In this case, the input device may be provided in the form of, for example, a device such as a keyboard or a mouse, and the output device may be provided in the form of a device such as a display unit for displaying images. As another example, the input / output interface (240) may be a means for interfacing with a device in which the functions for input and output are integrated into one, such as a touchscreen. Specifically, the processor (220) of the emotional care device (150) may display a service screen or content configured using data provided by a server in processing instructions of a computer program loaded in memory (210) on a display through the input / output interface (240). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the input / output interface (240) may include a means for interfacing with a display unit (250). The input / output interface (240) can receive user input for a web browsing window displayed on the display unit (250), and can receive output data to be output through the display unit (250) in response to the aforementioned user input from the processor (220).

[0063] The display unit (250) indicates a display module comprising one or more displays. Each of the one or more displays included in the display unit (250) may individually display independent content, and the one or more displays described above may be combined to display a single content. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the one or more displays included in the display unit (250) may include physically separated multiple displays, may be physically combined multiple displays, or may be displays capable of dividing and using a single screen.

[0064] The emotional care device (150) can stimulate the customer's emotions by utilizing customer information regarding the customer's characteristics, environmental information regarding the store's environmental characteristics and weather, and visit information regarding the customer's visit history to check the customer's condition, determine content corresponding to the customer's condition, adjust lighting, or generate emotional care information to adjust the concentration of fragrance in the store. In FIG. 3, a specific method regarding the process of the emotional care device (150) generating emotional care information is described.

[0066] FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram (300) regarding the process of an emotional care device (150) generating emotional care information (370) in an emotional care system (100) according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0067] The emotional care device (150) can generate emotional care information (370) regarding specific details of a service to be provided in a customized manner to the customer by utilizing preference information (310) regarding the service content preferred by the customer, customer information (320) regarding the characteristics of the customer, environment information (330) regarding the environmental conditions of the store, and visit information (340) regarding characteristics related to the customer's visit. The emotional care device (150) can generate state information (350) using customer information (320) and environment information (330), and can generate analysis information (360) regarding the analysis details of the customer's preference characteristics by utilizing customer information (320), environment information (330), visit information (340), and the calculated state information (350). Afterward, the emotional care device (150) can apply the analysis information (360) to the preference information (310) to determine the type of content the customer will watch and matters regarding the lighting and scent control of the area where the customer is located, and can generate emotional care information (370) by synthesizing the determined content.

[0068] Specifically, the emotional care device (150) receives preference information (310) regarding the content of the customer's preferences and customer information (320) related to the customer's characteristics. After entering the store, the customer can transmit data related to the customer's characteristics to the emotional care device (150) through the customer terminal (110), and accordingly, the emotional care device (150) can receive preference information (310) and customer information (320) from the customer terminal.

[0069] Preference information (310) indicates information regarding the details of the service preferred by the customer. Specifically, preference information (310) may indicate preferences set by the customer, such as preferred content or preferred atmosphere. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, preference information (310) may include preferred content, preferred lighting, and preferred scent. Here, preferred content may include the type of content video preferred by the customer, the volume of the content, and whether the customer prefers converting parts referring to people in subtitles or voice within the content into the customer's name. Additionally, preferred lighting may include the illuminance and color temperature of the preferred lighting, and preferred scent may include the type of perfume preferred and the concentration of the perfume.

[0070] Customer information (320) indicates information regarding the demographic characteristics and health-related characteristics of the customer. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, customer information (320) may include the customer's name, gender, age, whether or not they have an occupation, family composition, relationship with companions, degree of trend sensitivity, whether or not they have pets, and health survey responses. Here, the degree of trend sensitivity indicates a constant greater than 0 and less than 10 as a numerical value regarding whether the customer is sensitive to trends, and the health survey responses may indicate a result table of responses to a health-related survey provided in advance by the manager.

[0071] The emotional care device (150) obtains environmental information (330) related to the characteristics of the store and visit information (340) regarding the customer's visit history in response to the receipt of customer information (320). After receiving the customer information (320), the emotional care device (150) can request the manager terminal (130) to receive the environmental information (330) and visit information (340).

[0072] Environmental information (330) is information regarding the usage environment of the store and may include information regarding characteristics according to climate and geographical characteristics of the store. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, environmental information (330) may include weather information and store location information. Here, the weather information includes the temperature, humidity, weather, and season of the date the customer visited, and the store location information may include the altitude of the store and walking distance from the nearest station. Additionally, visit information (340) is information regarding the history of the customer's visit and may include the time of the customer's visit and the order menu.

[0073] The emotional care device (150) generates status information (350) regarding the customer's stable state by considering the customer's health status according to customer information (320) and the level of physical exhaustion according to environmental information (330). The emotional care device (150) can check the customer's basic stable state by considering the health survey responses within the customer information (320), check the level of physical exhaustion during the customer's movement to the store by considering environmental information (330), and generate status information (350) regarding the customer's physical and emotional stable state by combining the stable state and the level of physical exhaustion.

[0074] Specifically, the emotional care device (150) calculates the customer's basic physical stability level and basic emotional stability level based on the responses to the health survey. The health survey may include multiple physical-related surveys asking about the degree of physical stress and multiple emotional-related surveys asking about the degree of emotional stress in daily life. Here, the physical-related surveys and the emotional-related surveys may each consist of 10 questions, totaling 20 questions, and each question may instruct a survey requesting a value greater than 1 point and less than 10 points regarding the stress index. Before visiting the store, the customer may receive the physical-related surveys and emotional-related surveys from the manager and may fill out the responses. The emotional care device (150) can determine the basic physical stability level by calculating the average value of the physical-related surveys from the health survey responses and subtracting the average value from 10. In the same way, the emotional care device (150) can calculate the basic emotional stability level by calculating the average value of the emotional-related surveys from the health survey responses and subtracting the average value from 10. Accordingly, the initially calculated basic physical stability level and basic emotional stability level can each be determined as a value greater than 1 and less than 10.

[0075] Subsequently, the emotional care device (150) calculates the level of physical exhaustion regarding the physical energy consumed by a customer moving to a store according to weather information and store location in the environmental information (330). Here, the level of physical exhaustion can be expressed as a constant greater than 0 and less than 1. The emotional care device (150) can calculate the physical energy consumed by a customer moving from the nearest station to the store location in the weather environment. To this end, the emotional care device (150) may store in advance a physical table indicating the level of physical exhaustion according to temperature, humidity, weather, season, altitude of the store, and walking distance. That is, the emotional care device (150) can calculate the level of physical exhaustion by extracting a physical exhaustion value corresponding to the temperature, humidity, weather, season, altitude, and walking distance according to the environmental information from the physical table.

[0076] The emotional care device (150) generates state information (350) by applying a physical exhaustion level to a physical stability level and an emotional stability level. Specifically, the emotional care device (150) can determine the physical stability level by subtracting the physical exhaustion level from the basic physical stability level, and determine the emotional stability level by subtracting half of the physical exhaustion level from the basic emotional stability level. Since the physical exhaustion level is expressed as a numerical value greater than 0 and less than 1, and the basic physical stability level and the basic emotional stability level are expressed as constants greater than 1 and less than 10, the finally calculated physical stability level and emotional stability level can be determined as numerical values ​​greater than 0 and less than 10.

[0077] The emotional care device (150) generates analysis information (360) regarding the store environment recommended to the customer from customer information (320), visit information (340), status information (350), and environment information (330). The emotional care device (150) can obtain user data related to the characteristics of other customers by requesting from the management server (140), and can generate analysis information (360) related to the service provision environment to be recommended to the customer by confirming the preference history of other customers whose characteristics are within a threshold difference from the customer information (320), environment information (330), visit information (340), and calculated status information (350). The emotional care device (150) can select other customers whose physical and emotional stability state is similar to the user by considering the status information (350), select a comparison customer with the highest level of relevance to the customer among the selected other customers by comparing the customer's characteristics, visit history, and weather conditions, and generate analysis information (360) by confirming the store usage history of the comparison customer.

[0078] Specifically, the emotional care device (150) selects candidate customers from among other customers by considering the state information (350). The emotional care device (150) checks the physical stability level and emotional stability level included in the state information (350) and can extract candidate customers from among other customers whose difference in physical stability level is within a first threshold difference and whose difference in emotional stability level is within a second threshold difference.

[0079] The emotional care device (150) generates a customer matrix by listing customer information (320), visit information (340), and weather information, and generates candidate matrices by listing candidate customer information, candidate visit information, and candidate weather information regarding the characteristics of candidate customers.

[0080] The emotional care device (150) can generate a customer matrix by listing data from received customer information (320), visit information (340), and environment information (330). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the customer matrix may indicate a 1 x 14 matrix having parameters such as the customer's name, gender, age, presence or absence of occupation, family composition, relationship with companions, degree of trend sensitivity, presence or absence of pets, time of visit, order menu, temperature, humidity, weather, and season. In the same way, the emotional care device (150) can generate candidate matrices corresponding to each candidate customer by listing candidate customer information, candidate visit information (340), and candidate weather information regarding each candidate customer. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, each candidate matrix may indicate a 1 x 14 matrix containing the same parameters as the customer matrix.

[0081] The emotional care device (150) selects a comparison customer among the candidate customers that has the highest level of relevance to the customer, based on the distance between each of the candidate matrices and the customer matrix. The emotional care device (150) can classify the parameters included in each of the customer matrix and the candidate matrix into character parameters and numeric parameters. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, character parameters include gender, presence or absence of occupation, family composition, relationship with companions, presence or absence of pets, order menu, weather, and season, and numeric parameters may include age, degree of trend sensitivity, time of visit, temperature, and humidity. Subsequently, the emotional care device (150) can calculate the level of relevance between the customer matrix and the candidate matrices. Here, the level of relevance may be determined based on <Mathematical Formula 1>.

[0082]

[0083] Referring to <Mathematical Formula 1>, rel_L x is the relationship level between the customer matrix and the x-th candidate matrix, W totaln is the number of character parameters in the customer matrix, S is the number of elements with identical matrix values ​​among the character parameters, a i is the comparison weight greater than 0 and less than 1 corresponding to the i-th parameter, F total is the number of numeric parameters in the customer matrix, K i is the value of the i-th parameter in the customer matrix, L x,i can indicate the value of the i-th parameter in the x-th candidate matrix.

[0084] Referring to <Mathematical Formula 1>, the higher the related level, the more similar the characteristics are to the customer, so the emotional care device (150) can select a comparison customer by identifying the customer with the highest related level among multiple candidate matrices.

[0085] The emotional care device (150) generates analysis information (360) based on the usage history of the comparison customer regarding the store. The emotional care device (150) can generate analysis information (360) for recommending to the customer based on the usage history of the comparison customer, which has similar characteristics to the customer, by requesting the management server (140) to obtain comparison preference information regarding the comparison customer's preference history. Specifically, the emotional care device (150) can generate analysis information (360) by requesting the management server (140) to obtain the type of content video viewed during the comparison customer's use of the store, the volume, whether editing was performed regarding whether parts referring to people in subtitles or voice within the content were converted to the customer's name, the illuminance, the color temperature, the type of perfume, and the concentration of perfume.

[0086] The emotional care device (150) applies analysis information (360) to preference information (310) to generate emotional care information (370) regarding the in-store environment to be provided to the customer.

[0087] Emotional care information (370) is intended to stimulate the emotions of customers using the store and may provide information for controlling the customer's store service usage environment. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, emotional care information (370) may include content information regarding content to be displayed on a display terminal provided at a table where the customer is located, lighting information regarding lighting control of the area where the customer is located, and scent information regarding scent control within the area. Here, the content information may include the type of content video, volume, and whether there is an edit regarding whether parts referring to a person in subtitles or voice within the content have been converted to the customer's name; the lighting information may include illuminance and color temperature; and the scent information may include the type and concentration of perfume.

[0088] The emotional care device (150) generates option information by extracting content video, type of perfume, and whether it is edited from each of the preference information (310) and analysis information (360). Since the type of content video, type of perfume, and whether it is edited included in each of the preference information (310) and analysis information (360) are not fused, the emotional care device (150) can classify the type of content video, type of perfume, and whether it is edited as option information to support the customer's selection.

[0089] The emotional care device (150) generates calculation information by calculating the volume, illuminance, color temperature, and fragrance intensity of the content based on the average calculation of the preference information (310) and the analysis information (360), respectively. Since the content volume, illuminance, color temperature, and fragrance concentration are expressed as numerical values, the emotional care device (150) can determine the volume, illuminance, color temperature, and fragrance concentration to recommend to the customer by calculating the average of the numerical values ​​extracted from the preference information (310) and the analysis information (360), respectively.

[0090] The emotional care device (150) combines option information and computation information to generate emotional care information (370) regarding content, lighting, and scent to be provided to the customer. The emotional care device (150) can generate emotional care information (370) that includes both extracted option information and computational information.

[0091] Subsequently, the emotional care device (150) transmits emotional care information (370) to the manager terminal (130). By transmitting the emotional care information (370) to the manager terminal (130), the emotional care device (150) can support the manager in providing care services to customers in accordance with the emotional care information (370). Accordingly, the manager terminal (130) can support customers in viewing customized content by transmitting content information to the display terminal (120), control the illuminance and color temperature of the lighting by transmitting lighting information to the lighting equipment, and support customers in smelling the recommended perfume in the recommended lighting environment by controlling the type of perfume recommended to be sprayed to the perfume spraying equipment in accordance with the concentration.

[0093] FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart (400) regarding the operation method of an emotional care system (100) according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0094] Referring to FIG. 4, in step (401), the customer terminal (110) transmits customer information (320) and preference information (310) to the emotional care device (150). The customer terminal (110) can transmit customer information (320) regarding the characteristics of the customer and preference information (310) regarding the preferences of the customer to the emotional care device (150).

[0095] In step (403), the emotional care device (150) transmits request information to the administrator terminal (130). In response to the reception of customer information (320), the emotional care device (150) may request data regarding the store environment, weather environment, and visit history from the administrator terminal (130).

[0096] In step (405), the administrator terminal (130) transmits environment information (330) and visit information (340) to the emotional care device (150). The administrator terminal (130) can transmit environment information (330) and visit information (340) to the emotional care device (150) in response to receiving request information from the emotional care device (150).

[0097] In step (407), the emotional care device (150) generates status information (350) by considering the health condition and the level of physical exhaustion. The emotional care device (150) can calculate status information (350) regarding the customer's physical stability level and emotional stability level by calculating the health condition based on the customer's health survey response and the level of physical exhaustion during the customer's movement to the store.

[0098] In step (409), the emotional care device (150) generates analysis information (360) from customer information (320), visit information (340), status information (350), and environment information (330). The emotional care device (150) considers the status information (350) to determine candidate customers whose difference between the level of physical stability and the level of emotional stability is within a set range, and can select a comparison customer from among the candidate customers by utilizing a matrix based on the customer's characteristics, visit history, and weather environment. Subsequently, the emotional care device (150) can generate analysis information (360) by obtaining the preference history of the comparison customer.

[0099] In step (411), the emotional care device (150) generates emotional care information (370) by applying analysis information (360) to preference information (310). The emotional care device (150) can generate selection information regarding selectable items from preference information (310) and analysis information (360), generate calculation information by applying an average calculation to the remaining items in analysis information (360), and generate emotional care information (370) by combining the selection information and the calculation information.

[0100] In step (413), the emotional care device (150) transmits emotional care information (370) to the administrator terminal (130). By transmitting emotional care information (370), which includes content information, lighting information, and scent information, to the administrator terminal (130), the emotional care device (150) can support the administrator in providing customer care services.

[0101] In step (415), the manager terminal (130) transmits content information to the display terminal (120). The manager terminal (130) can transmit content information within the emotional care information (370) to the display terminal (120). The display terminal (120) can provide emotional care to the customer by setting the volume of at least one content video included in the content information, applying editing based on whether editing is performed, and then displaying the content on the display.

[0103] FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart (500) regarding the operation method of an emotional care device (150) in an emotional care system (100) according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0104] Referring to FIG. 5, in step (501), the emotional care device (150) receives preference information (310) regarding the content of the customer's preferences and customer information (320) related to the characteristics of the customer. The emotional care device (150) can receive preference information (310) and customer information (320) from the customer terminal (11).

[0105] According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, customer information (320) may include the customer's name, gender, age, whether or not they have an occupation, family composition, relationship with companions, degree of trend sensitivity, whether or not they have pets, and responses to health surveys.

[0106] In step (503), the emotional care device (150) obtains environmental information (330) related to the characteristics of the store and visit information (340) regarding the customer's visit history in response to the receipt of customer information (320). After receiving the customer information (320), the emotional care device (150) may request the administrator terminal (130) to receive the environmental information (330) and visit information (340).

[0107] According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, environmental information (330) includes weather information and store location information, the weather information includes temperature, humidity, weather, and season, and the store location information may include the altitude of the store and walking distance from the nearest station.

[0108] In step (505), the emotional care device (150) generates status information (350) regarding the customer's stable state by considering the customer's health state according to customer information (320) and the level of physical exhaustion according to environmental information (330).

[0109] According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the emotional care device (150) may calculate the basic physical stability level and basic emotional stability level of a customer based on the response to a health survey, calculate the physical exhaustion level regarding the physical energy consumed during the process of moving to the store based on weather information and store location in the environment information (330), and generate state information (350) by applying the physical exhaustion level to the basic physical stability level and basic emotional stability level. Here, the physical stability level and emotional stability level included in the state information (350) may be expressed as numerical values ​​greater than 0 and less than 10.

[0110] In step (507), the emotional care device (150) generates analysis information (360) regarding a store environment recommended to a customer from customer information (320), visit information (340), status information (350), and environment information (330).

[0111] According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the emotional care device (150) selects candidate customers among other customers by considering state information (350), generates a customer matrix by listing customer information (320), visit information (340), and weather information, generates candidate matrices by listing candidate customer information, candidate visit information, and candidate weather information regarding the characteristics of candidate customers, selects a comparison customer among the candidate customers who has the highest level of relationship with the customer based on the distance between each of the candidate matrices and the customer matrix, and generates analysis information (360) based on the comparison customer's usage history regarding the store.

[0112] In step (509), the emotional care device (150) applies analysis information (360) to preference information (310) to generate emotional care information (370) regarding the in-store environment to be provided to the customer. Here, the emotional care information (370) may include content information regarding content to be displayed on a display terminal provided at the table where the customer is located, lighting information regarding lighting control of the area where the customer is located, and scent information regarding scent control within the area.

[0113] According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the emotional care device (150) can generate selection information by extracting content images, types of perfume, and whether editing is performed from each of the preference information (310) and analysis information (360), generate calculation information by calculating the volume, illuminance, color temperature, and concentration of perfume of the content based on an average calculation from each of the preference information (310) and analysis information (360), and generate emotional care information regarding content, lighting, and fragrance to be provided to a customer by combining the selection information and the calculation information.

[0114] Methods according to the embodiments described in the claims or specification of the present disclosure may be implemented in the form of hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. A method according to an embodiment may be implemented in the form of program instructions that can be executed through various computer means and recorded on a computer-readable medium, or may be implemented as a computer program stored on a computer-readable recording medium in combination with hardware.

[0115] When implemented in software, a computer-readable storage medium may be provided for storing one or more programs (software modules). One or more programs stored in the computer-readable storage medium are configured for execution by one or more processors within an electronic device. One or more programs include instructions that cause the electronic device to execute methods according to the embodiments described in the claims or specification of this disclosure.

[0116] Such programs (software modules, software) may be stored in random access memory, non-volatile memory including flash memory, read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic disc storage devices, compact disc-ROM (CD-ROM), digital versatile discs (DVDs), or other forms of optical storage devices, magnetic cassettes. Alternatively, they may be stored in memory composed of some or all of these. Additionally, each constituent memory may include multiple units.

[0117] Additionally, the program may be stored on an attachable storage device that can be accessed via a communication network such as the Internet, Intranet, LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network), or SAN (storage area network), or a combination thereof. Such a storage device may be connected to a device performing an embodiment of the present disclosure through an external port. Additionally, a separate storage device on a communication network may be connected to a device performing an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0118] In the specific embodiments of the present disclosure described above, the components included in the disclosure are expressed in a singular or plural form according to the specific embodiments presented. However, the singular or plural expression is selected to suit the situation presented for convenience of explanation, and the present disclosure is not limited to singular or plural components; even if a component is expressed in the plural form, it may be composed of a singular form, and even if a component is expressed in the singular form, it may be composed of a plural form.

[0119] Meanwhile, although specific embodiments have been described in the detailed description of the present disclosure, it is understood that various modifications are possible within the scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the scope of the present disclosure should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be defined by the claims set forth below as well as equivalents thereof. Explanation of the symbols

[0121] 110 User terminal 120 Display terminal 130 Administrator Terminal 140 Management Server 150 Emotional Care Devices 170 Network 210 memory 220 processor 230 Communications Unit 240 Input / Output Interface 250 Display Section 310 Preferred Information 320 Customer Information 330 Environmental Information 340 Visit Information 350 Status Information 360 Analysis Information 370 Emotional Care Information

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