Information Discriminating Device for Privacy-Safe Public Sharing

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing technologies fail to effectively integrate private information intended for personal use with public information in a way that respects privacy and allows for public sharing, particularly in scenarios where personal identification is possible, leading to difficulties in retrieving and sharing relevant information.

Innovation Solution

An information discriminating device and method that acquires private information, discriminates public information portions from private information, and superimposes the private information on public information, enabling users to create enriched hybrid images that can be shared publicly while maintaining privacy protection.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If private information is shared publicly, then information accessibility and usability are improved, but privacy protection deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveinformation accessibilityVSAvoidprivacy exposure

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments private information into public information portions (landscapes, buildings, structures) and private information portions (personal identities, faces, names). This segmentation allows the public portions to be shared and reused while protecting the private portions, thereby improving information accessibility without compromising privacy protection.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent extracts public information portions from private information by comparing against public information databases. This extraction process isolates shareable content (landscapes, buildings) from non-shareable content (personal identifiers), enabling public reuse of extracted portions while maintaining privacy protection for the remaining private information.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

2Productivity

If private information is reused, then information utility is improved, but privacy protection deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveinformation utilityVSAvoidprivacy risk

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent divides private information into reusable public portions and protected private portions through segmentation. This allows the public portions to be freely reused for creating compound information, improving information utility while the protected portions maintain privacy security.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces a privacy protection mechanism as an intermediary that mediates between private information and public reuse. This intermediary process identifies and protects personal information while allowing other portions to be reused, thereby enabling information utility improvement without increasing privacy risk.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Object-affected harmful factors

If information discrimination is performed, then privacy protection is improved, but device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveprivacy protectionVSAvoidprocessing complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Object-affected harmful factorsVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts public information portions from private information by comparing with public databases. This extraction approach simplifies the discrimination process by focusing on identifying shareable content rather than analyzing all private information, thereby improving privacy protection while limiting complexity increase.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent uses copying and comparison of information portions between private and public databases to perform discrimination. This copying approach enables automated privacy protection through pattern matching, improving protection effectiveness while keeping processing complexity manageable through efficient comparison algorithms.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

Data Source

PatentUS10515229B2Information discriminating device, information discriminating method, and non-transitory storage medium storing information discriminating program

Publication Date: 2019.12.24 OLYMPUS CORPORATION(JP)

AI summary

An information discriminating device includes an information acquiring unit, an information discriminating unit, and an information superimposing unit. The information acquiring unit acquires private information to be privately used by a user of the information discriminating device. The information discriminating unit discriminates a public information portion that is also usable as public information accessible by a special majority in the private information acquired by the information acquiring unit from a private information portion unusable as the public information. The information superimposing unit superimposes the private information portion on the public information.