JP2009133662A - Device and method for providing information - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information providing device whose convenience for users is high. <P>SOLUTION: The information providing device is provided with an output means 8 for outputting distribution information by digital broadcasting to a user, a POI information acquisition means 3 for acquiring POI information which is contained in the distribution information and concerns a position in which the user is interested, and a user information acquisition means 4 for acquiring user information input by the user. Moreover, the device is provided with a determination means 5 which outputs the POI information to the output means, only when the result of comparison between the user information and the POI information satisfies a predetermined condition defined beforehand. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information providing apparatus and an information providing method for distributing digital broadcast distribution information together with POI (Point of Interest) information.

There is known an advertising system in which content information including position information and advertisement information is embedded in digital broadcast distribution information and transmitted, and the content information is displayed on a map displayed by a navigation device (see Patent Document 1).

JP 2005-249560 A

However, since the conventional advertisement system uniformly displays content information that is not useful to the user, there is a problem in that it is not convenient for the user.

  The problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide an information providing apparatus and an information providing method that are convenient for the user.

  The present invention solves the above problems by the following means.

That is, the present invention is input by the user, output means for outputting distribution information by digital broadcasting to the user, POI information acquisition means for acquiring POI information related to a point of interest of the user, which is included in the distribution information, and User information acquisition means for acquiring user information.

Then, only when the comparison result between the user information and the POI information satisfies a predetermined condition that is defined in advance, a determination unit that outputs the POI information to the output unit is provided.

  According to the present invention, convenience for the user is improved.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

<< First Embodiment >>
The information providing apparatus according to the present embodiment is a preferable information providing apparatus that is applied when sound and images distributed by digital broadcasting are information with position information transmitted in real time in conjunction with these. For example, when a recommended store of personality is introduced in digital radio broadcasting, the location information of this store is embedded and distributed in the digital radio broadcast, so the store information is provided to the user by extracting this location information. Is. In the following example, store information will be described as an example of position-added information. In addition, such store information with position information is referred to as POI (Point of Interest) information from the meaning that the user is interested.

In the present embodiment, position information (hereinafter also referred to as current position information) such as the current position of the vehicle, the currently set destination, the currently set waypoint, and the currently set route, or set in the past. Digital broadcasting using location information (hereinafter also referred to as history location information) such as a destination set in the past, a route set in the past, a route set in the past, and a registered location set in the destination list. It is determined whether or not the acquired store information is useful to the user. Here, the usefulness of POI information such as store information for a user means effective usability of information determined by whether or not the user can easily go to the location.

And if a store introduced by digital broadcasting is close to the current location, it is easy to go to the store, and if it is close to a place that has been visited in the past, it is easy to go because it knows the route. In addition, since a place that is currently set as a destination or a point that has been set as a destination in the past is considered as a point of interest at least, there is a high possibility that the user wants to go. Therefore, since such store information can be said to be highly useful information for the user, it is selected and presented to the user.

Conversely, if a store introduced in digital broadcasting is far from the current location, it will take time to go to that store, and if it is near a place that has never been in the past, it may be lost because it does not know the route is there. Moreover, if it is a point which is not set as the destination in the present and the past, there is a high possibility that the point is not interested. Therefore, since such store information can be said to be information that is less useful to the user, it is not presented to the user.

Note that the current position information in this example is position information that has been revealed to the user, such as the current position, whereas the history position information is, for example, a position that has been performed in the past. Is potential location information. Although any information has a difference in importance, it becomes a factor for determining whether the POI information is useful to the user.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an information providing apparatus according to this embodiment.

The information providing apparatus shown in the figure includes a digital broadcast receiving means 1, a digital broadcast decoding means 2, a POI information acquisition means 3, a user information acquisition means 4, a determination means 5, a POI information storage means 6, an output control means 7, an output means 8 and Input means 9 is provided.

The digital information receiving means 1 and the digital broadcast decoding means 2 correspond to the receiving means of the present invention, the POI information acquiring means 3 corresponds to the POI information acquiring means of the present invention, and the user information acquiring means 4 corresponds to the user information acquiring of the present invention. The determination means 5 corresponds to the determination means of the present invention, the POI information storage means 6 corresponds to the POI information acquisition means of the present invention, and the output control means 7 and the output means 8 correspond to the output means of the present invention. Equivalent to.

The digital broadcast receiving means 1 includes an antenna 11 and a tuner unit 12, and the tuner unit 12 extracts only a frequency signal that is a reception target of a predetermined frequency component from various broadcast signals that have reached the antenna 11, The extracted digital broadcast signal is output to the digital broadcast decoding means 2.

The digital broadcast decoding unit 2 includes a data processing unit 21. The data processing unit 21 performs a predetermined digital demodulation process on the digital broadcast signal extracted by the digital broadcast tuner unit 12, and an audio signal and BML (Broadcast Markup Language). It separates into the data signal described by. In addition, the data processing unit 21 analyzes the separated data signal, creates a data broadcast screen, and extracts POI information. The audio signal separated by the data processing unit 21 is output to the speaker 81 of the output unit 8 via the audio output control unit 71 of the output control unit 7, while the image / image generated by the data processing unit 21 is output. The character data is output to the display 82 of the output unit 8 via the image / character output control unit 72 of the output control unit 7. At this time, POI information and map information are added to the image / character data. Details of this part will be described later.

The POI information acquisition unit 3 includes a position information extraction unit 31, which acquires the POI information extracted by the data processing unit 21 and outputs the POI information to the determination unit 5. FIG. 9 is a data structure diagram showing an example of POI information included in digital broadcast distribution information. In this example, the POI information includes information such as a store name, address, location (longitude / latitude), telephone number, and store genre (for example, ramen shop), of which the location (longitude / latitude) is POI information. Position information.

The input unit 9 includes a navigation device 91. The navigation device 91 includes a GPS information input function for detecting the current position, and navigation functions such as display of the current position, destination input setting, route search, and route guidance. .

The position information output from the navigation device 91 includes current position information, position information of the currently set destination, position information of the currently set waypoint, and position information of the currently set route, There are destination location information, transit location location information, and route location information set in the past. As described, the former is collectively referred to as “current location information”, and the latter is collectively referred to as “history location”. Also called “information”. In this example, the function of the navigation device 91 is used as the input means 9, but an input device provided separately from the navigation device 91 can also be used.

The user information acquisition unit 4 includes a current position information acquisition unit 41 that acquires the above-described current position information from the navigation device 91, a history position information acquisition unit 42 that similarly acquires history position information from the navigation device 91, and a history position information acquisition. The history position information storage unit 43 that stores the history position information acquired by the unit 42, and the history information stored in the history position information storage unit 43 determines whether the history is useful for the user. A useful history extraction unit 44 that extracts position information.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a data structure of history position information stored in the history position information storage unit 43. The name of the destination that has been set in the past as the destination of the navigation device 91, its position (longitude) And latitude) and the set number of times are stored in association with each other. Although the figure shows the destination name, point information, and the history of the set number of times, the information about the route from where to where and through which route is also accumulated including the number of times of use. ing.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing history position accumulation processing by the history position information accumulation unit 43.

The history position information accumulation process is executed when the user inputs a destination / route point to the navigation device 91 or when the navigation device 91 calculates a route based on the input result. Here, a case where the user sets a destination will be described as an example.

First, in step S31, when it is determined that the user has input a destination to the navigation device 91, the process proceeds to step S32, where the input destination has been registered in the past, that is, in the history position information storage unit 43. Determine whether it is already registered. If it has been registered in the past, the process proceeds to step S33 and the corresponding setting number is added, and if not registered, the process proceeds to step S34 and registered as a new setting history. For example, in the history state shown in FIG. 2, when the user sets home as the destination, the number of home settings in the setting history shown in FIG. 2 is updated from 52 times to 53 times. In addition, although the case where the destination was set was demonstrated here, the same process is performed also about a waypoint and a route.

The useful history extraction unit 44 determines history position information that can be used to determine whether or not providing POI information is useful to the user from the history position information stored in the history position information storage unit 43. This history position information is referred to as useful history position information.

For example, if there is a place visited or used more than a predetermined number of times within a predetermined period, it is determined as a history that can be used for determination. As a result, it is possible to exclude places where the user's recognition level is low, such as places where the user has gone a long time ago or places where the user has visited only a few times, from the accumulated history position information. Also, highly useful position information can be automatically determined without inputting position information that the user wants positively.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing extraction processing of useful history position information by the useful history extracting unit 44. First, in step S41, the history position information accumulated in the history position information accumulation unit 43 is referred to (position information of destinations / routes / routes set in the past), and in step S42, predetermined information is selected. History position information having a set history of a predetermined number of times or more within a period is acquired, and in step S43, the corresponding history position information is determined as useful history position information that can be used for validity determination described later. If there is no corresponding history position information in step S42, step S43 is jumped to assume that there is no useful history position information.

The determination unit 5 determines whether the POI information received by the POI information acquisition unit 3 is useful for the user in comparison with the user information acquired by the user information acquisition unit 4, and includes a position comparison unit 51, A determination unit 52 and a determination result transmission unit 53 are provided.

The position comparison unit 51 includes the store position extracted by the position information extraction unit 31 of the POI information acquisition unit 3 and the current position and useful history extraction unit stored in the current position information acquisition unit 41 of the user information acquisition unit 4. A function of calculating a distance (a straight line or a distance on a route) from the useful history position extracted in 44 and a function of calculating a required time between them.

The determination unit 52 determines whether the distance and the required time compared by the position comparison unit 51 are within predetermined values, respectively. If the distance is within the predetermined value, the POI is sent to the determination result transmission unit 53. Outputs that the information is useful.

The determination result sending unit 53 creates information to be presented to the user and processes the POI information deemed useful from the determination unit 52. For example, if either the distance between the current location information and the store location or the required time is within a predetermined value, the store name, the distance from the current location and the required time are displayed on the display 82 as shown in FIG. To create data for If either the distance between the history position information and the store position or the required time is within a predetermined value, as shown in FIG. 6, the distance from the location of the store name and the past destination history and the required time Is created to display the data on the display 82.

FIG. 5 is an example of a screen created by the determination result sending unit 53 and the POI information editing unit 721 when it is determined that the received store location is useful based on the current location information. FIG. 6 is an example of a screen created by the determination result sending unit 53 and the POI information editing unit 721 when it is determined from the history position information that the received store position is useful.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the determination result sending unit 53 and the POI information editing unit 721 display an input menu such as “register” for registering the position information of the displayed POI information and a surrounding map “ Options such as an input menu such as “display peripheral map” and an input menu such as “display detailed information” for displaying detailed information of the store are also created and displayed on the display 82. When an input menu of these options is selected by the user, that effect is output to the output control means 7, a map around the store and detailed information on the store are displayed on the display 82, and an input menu for “register” When is selected, the POI information is stored in the POI information storage means 6.

In the example shown in the figure, in addition to the store name, the distance from the current location information or history location information and the required time, options such as registration, display of the surrounding map, and display of detailed information are displayed. For example, if there is an image such as the appearance of the store, the image can be displayed, or the surrounding map can be directly displayed instead of the surrounding map display option.

The POI information storage means 6 is a storage medium for storing store information when a store registration request presented to the user is requested on the display screen shown in FIGS. The POI information storage means 6 stores the store information, the location information of the store, the current location information or history location information, and the distance or required time between the store.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the data structure of store information stored in the POI information storage unit 6. In this example, as store information stored in the POI information storage means 6, in addition to the name, address, latitude / longitude, telephone number, and genre, current position information and history position information, which are information used by the determination means 5, determination means The distance from the position information used in 5 and the required time are described. In addition, the information stored in the POI information storage means 6 includes, for example, received store information, image information such as the store's exterior and interior, text information such as recommended menus and announcements to the user, etc. More detailed information can also be stored.

The POI information storage means 6 stores not only the store information but also the distance from the current position information or the history position information or the required time, so that when the user registers the store at a later date, the position of the store can be determined. Even if you can't figure out, you can know the distance from the place you know and the required time, so you can get a rough position.

The output unit 7 is sent from the digital broadcast decoding unit 2 and the audio output control unit 71 for executing control for outputting the audio data sent from the digital broadcast decoding unit 2 by the speaker 81 of the output unit 8. And an image / character output control unit 72 that executes control for causing the display 82 of the output means 8 to output image / character data.

The image / character output control unit 72 includes a POI information editing unit 721 that edits the POI information acquired by the POI information acquisition unit 3 and selected by the determination unit 5, and a map information acquisition unit that acquires map information from the navigation device 91. 722. Then, the POI information editing unit 721 adds the distance or the required time and the input menu options to the POI information based on the result sent from the judgment result sending unit 53 of the judging means 5, and converts these into map information. Image processing to be superimposed is executed and output to the display 82.

Next, an operation flow of the information providing apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an information processing procedure of the information providing apparatus according to the present embodiment.

In step S801, when the antenna 11 and the digital broadcast tuner unit 12 of the digital broadcast receiving unit 1 receive the digital broadcast signal and extract only a predetermined frequency component designated by the user, in step S802, the digital broadcast decoding unit 2 The data processing unit 21 starts decoding the broadcast.

When decoded by the data processing unit 21, the broadcast signal is separated into audio data and image / character data, and the audio data is output from the speaker 81 via the audio output control unit 71 of the output control means 7.

On the other hand, the image / character data is determined in step S803 as to whether or not the POI information as shown in FIG. 9 is present in the data. If there is no POI information, the data is processed as normal BML data, and then proceeds to step S804. The digital broadcast image or character is displayed on the display 82 via the image / character output control unit 72 of the output means 7.

When the POI information as shown in FIG. 9 exists in the image / character data, the process proceeds to step S805, where the position information extraction unit 31 of the POI information acquisition unit 3 extracts the position information included in the POI information, It outputs to the position comparison part 51 of the determination means 5. The POI information itself is temporarily held by the POI information acquisition unit 3 until the result of the determination unit 52 of the determination unit 5 is obtained.

In the next step S806, the position comparison unit 51 determines the usefulness of the current position information in order to determine the current position information acquired by the current position information acquisition unit 41 of the user information acquisition unit 4, that is, the current position. The information, the currently set destination position information, the currently set waypoint position information, and the currently set route position information are read out.

In step S807, the distance (straight line or on the route) and the required time between the two positions are calculated from the position information of the POI information extracted in step S805 and the current position information extracted in step S806.

In step S808, it is determined whether the distance between the two positions calculated in step S807 is within a predetermined distance and whether the required time between the two positions is within a predetermined time, and either one is within a predetermined value. If it is, the POI information is deemed useful for the user, and the process proceeds to step S809, where the POI information is displayed on the display 82 via the POI information editing unit 721 of the output control means 7, and the processing is terminated. To do. An example of this display screen is shown in FIG. 5, and the location of the store is displayed superimposed on the map, and the distance from the current location to the store and the required time are also displayed.

In addition, the current position information other than the current position, that is, the currently set destination, waypoint, and route are also compared with the position information of the POI information, and the usefulness is calculated by calculating the distance between the two positions and the required time. If it is determined that it is useful, POI information is displayed on the display 82. Further, as described above, an input menu such as “Register” is also displayed, and when the user selects, the process for each item is executed.

In this example, the case where the determination result sending unit 53 and the POI information editing unit 721 create a POI information providing screen has been described. However, the providing screen may be stored in the POI information storage unit 6 without presenting the providing screen.

Thus, by giving priority to the processing of the current position information over the history position information described later, POI information that is currently useful to the user can be provided, and the processing time of the information providing apparatus according to the present embodiment Can be shortened.

That is, in the present embodiment, the usefulness of the POI information is first determined based on the current position information in steps S806 to S809, and if it is determined that there is usefulness, the process is executed in steps S810 to S816. Since the POI information is presented without performing the usefulness determination based on the history position information, the usefulness determination based on the current position information is useful even if the usefulness determination result based on the history position information is not useful. As long as there is sex, the POI information is presented to the user. Conversely, even if the result of the usefulness determination based on the history position information is useful, the POI information is not presented to the user as long as the usefulness determination based on the current position information is not useful.

Returning to step S808, the position information of the POI information extracted by the position information extraction unit 31 of the POI information acquisition means 3 is the current position information (current position information, currently set destination position information, currently set. If it is a position that exceeds a predetermined distance from the location information of the waypoints that are currently on, and the position information of the currently set route), and if the predetermined required time is exceeded, the process proceeds to step S810 and the comparison with the useful history position information is performed. Execute.

That is, in steps S810 to S811, the position comparison unit 51 reads the useful history position information extracted by the useful history extraction unit 44, and determines whether or not there are a plurality of useful history position information. If there is only one useful history position information, the useful history position information is specified in step S812. If there are a plurality of useful history position information, the process proceeds to step S813, and the history position information with the largest number of times of setting is extracted.

When the useful history position information is narrowed down to one, the process proceeds to step S814, and the distance between the two positions and the required time are calculated from the narrowed history position information and the position information of the POI information in the same manner as in step S807.

In step S815, it is determined whether or not the distance between both positions calculated in step S814 is within a predetermined distance and whether the required time between both positions is within a predetermined time, and either one is within a predetermined value. If it is, the POI information is deemed useful for the user, and the process proceeds to step S816, where the POI information is displayed on the display 82 via the POI information editing unit 721 of the output control means 7, and the processing is terminated. To do. An example of this display screen is shown in FIG. 6, and the position of the store is displayed superimposed on the map, and the distance from the history position to the store and the required time are also displayed.

In this example, the position information of the destination that has been set in the past is used as the useful history position information. However, the POI information is also used for other history position information, that is, via points and routes that have been set in the past. The usefulness is determined by calculating the distance between the two positions and the required time, and the POI information can be displayed on the display 82 if it is determined useful. Further, as described above, an input menu such as “Register” is also displayed, and when the user selects, the process for each item is executed.

In this example, the case where the determination result sending unit 53 and the POI information editing unit 721 create a POI information providing screen has been described. However, the providing screen may be stored in the POI information storage unit 6 without presenting the providing screen.

If it is determined in step S815 that the POI information is not useful for the history position information, the process jumps to step S816 to end the process, and the POI information is not presented.

  As described above, according to the information providing apparatus and the information providing method of the present embodiment, the usefulness of the POI information is determined based on the current position information or the history position information, and is output to a display or the like only when there is usefulness. Therefore, only the POI information required for the user is automatically distributed, and the convenience for the user is improved.

  Moreover, since the usefulness determination based on the current position information is executed with priority over the usefulness determination based on the history position information, POI information currently useful to the user can be selected and provided.

  Also, since useful historical position information is used when determining usefulness based on historical position information, places that are not so useful to the current user, such as places that have been visited only a few times or places that have been visited a long time ago, are excluded. be able to.

  Further, when displaying the POI information determined to be useful on the display 82, the distance to the position and the required time are also displayed, so that a sense of distance can be grasped and the convenience for the user is further improved. .

  Also, by storing the POI information determined to be useful together with the position information in the POI information storage means 6, the side where the registered information is located when the information registered by the user is reviewed at a later date. Can be easily grasped.

  Note that the present embodiment can be modified as follows. That is, in the embodiment of the process shown in FIG. 8, steps S810 to S816 can be omitted, and the usefulness of the POI information can be determined based only on the current position information. Conversely, steps S806 to S809 can be omitted, and the usefulness of the POI information can be determined based only on the history position information.

Furthermore, when determining the usefulness of the POI information based on the history position information, the usefulness of the POI information can be determined using all the history position information instead of the useful history position information. In addition, when there are a plurality of history position information, the narrowing method can be narrowed down to the shortest distance or required time from the current position, for example, in addition to the method with the largest number of times of setting.

  Also, a plurality of POI information determined to be useful can be ordered in descending order of usefulness and displayed on the display 82 or stored in the POI information storage unit 6.

<< Second Embodiment >>
In the first embodiment described above, the usefulness of the POI information is determined based on the distance or the required time. However, the usefulness of the POI information can be determined in addition to the distance or the required time.

In the present embodiment, the history of attribute information selected by the user or the necessity of information, such as the genre / region / facility of the destination set by the user in the navigation device or a separate input device, is used. , Determine whether the POI information is useful to the user.

By doing this, from the viewpoint different from the usefulness determination by distance or time required, that is, from the viewpoint of distance and time, such as “easy to go” because it is close, it is a desire for whether it is a place “I want to go” From the viewpoint, only useful information can be provided to the user.

  FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing an information providing apparatus according to this embodiment.

The information providing apparatus shown in the figure includes a digital broadcast receiving means 1, a digital broadcast decoding means 2, a POI information acquisition means 3, a user information acquisition means 4, a determination means 5, a POI information storage means 6, an output control means 7, an output means 8 and Input means 9 is provided.

The digital information receiving means 1 and the digital broadcast decoding means 2 correspond to the receiving means of the present invention, the POI information acquiring means 3 corresponds to the POI information acquiring means of the present invention, and the user information acquiring means 4 corresponds to the user information acquiring of the present invention. The determination means 5 corresponds to the determination means of the present invention, the POI information storage means 6 corresponds to the POI information acquisition means of the present invention, and the output control means 7 and the output means 8 correspond to the output means of the present invention. Equivalent to.

The digital broadcast receiving means 1 includes an antenna 11 and a tuner unit 12, and the tuner unit 12 extracts only a frequency signal that is a reception target of a predetermined frequency component from various broadcast signals that have reached the antenna 11, The extracted digital broadcast signal is output to the digital broadcast decoding means 2.

The digital broadcast decoding unit 2 includes a data processing unit 21. The data processing unit 21 performs a predetermined digital demodulation process on the digital broadcast signal extracted by the digital broadcast tuner unit 12, and an audio signal and BML (Broadcast Markup Language). It separates into the data signal described by. In addition, the data processing unit 21 analyzes the separated data signal, creates a data broadcast screen, and extracts POI information.

The audio signal separated by the data processing unit 21 is output to the speaker 81 of the output unit 8 via the audio output control unit 71 of the output control unit 7, while the image / image generated by the data processing unit 21 is output. The character data is output to the display 82 of the output unit 8 via the image / character output control unit 72 of the output control unit 7. At this time, POI information and map information are added to the image / character data. Details of this part will be described later.

The POI information acquisition unit 3 includes an attribute information extraction unit 32, which acquires attribute information included in the POI information extracted by the data processing unit 21 and outputs the attribute information to the determination unit 5. As in the first embodiment described above, the POI information of this example includes a certain store name, address, position (longitude / latitude), telephone number, and store genre (for example, ramen shop), as shown in FIG. Contains information. Of these, the genre and address correspond to the attributes of the POI information extracted by the attribute information extraction unit 32.

The input means 9 includes a navigation device 91. The navigation device 91 has a GPS information input function for detecting the current position and a navigation function (input such as display of the current position, destination input setting, route search, route guidance). Including function). Although the input function of the navigation device 91 is used as the input means 9 in this example, an input device provided separately from the navigation device 91 can also be used. Further, an input function can be added to the display 82 of the output means 8 and this can be used as the input means 9.

The user information acquisition unit 4 includes a designated attribute information acquisition unit 45 that acquires attribute information from the input function unit of the navigation device 91, a necessity selection acquisition unit 46, and selection attribute information acquired by the necessity selection acquisition unit 46. Is included, and a useful history extraction unit 48 that determines and extracts whether the attribute information is useful for the user from the selection attribute information stored in the selection attribute information storage unit 47.

  FIGS. 11A and 11B are diagrams showing an example of an input screen displayed on the input function unit (display) of the navigation device 91 and displayed when the user sets a destination or the like. 11A shows a genre attribute input screen, and FIG. 11B shows a regional attribute input screen. For example, the user designates the genre attribute “ramen” on the search screen of the navigation device 91 as shown in FIG. 11A, and the regional attribute “Yokohama Aoba Ward” as shown in FIG. When the ramen shop in Aoba Ward, Yokohama is set as the destination, the attribute “Ramen” and the attribute “Aoba Ward, Yokohama” are stored in the specified attribute information acquisition unit 45 of the user information acquisition means 4. Attribute information acquired. As described above, the currently set attribute information is particularly referred to as user-specified attribute information.

  In addition, FIG. 12 is a figure which shows an example of the content of genre attribute information and the content of area attribute information among the attribute information in this embodiment. Other attribute information can include amusement park and movie theater entertainment information, historical information such as castles and monuments, event information such as concerts and autographs, and the specific artist name of the event. . Also, the regional information is not limited to classifications such as municipalities, but can be broadly divided into prefectures and specific areas, or conversely within a limited number of kilometers from a certain place. In addition, attribute information such as a program name and a personality name indicating who the person wants to recommend can be included.

Such attribute information is potential as information indicating the degree of interest of the user. However, if the attribute information can be matched in some way with the attribute information included in the POI information distributed by digital broadcasting, these are included. be able to.

The necessity selection acquisition unit 46 acquires whether or not the user needs the information, particularly for the POI information displayed on the display 82, and the necessity result is stored in the selection attribute information storage unit 47. Is output. That is, apart from the user-specified attribute information, the usefulness of information by the user is fed back for the POI information once presented to the user. Specifically, on the POI information presentation screen shown in FIG. 14, when the input menu “This information is necessary” provided at the lower left is selected, attribute information related to the POI information is required as user-selected attribute information. Obtained by the rejection selection obtaining unit 46.

The selection attribute information accumulation unit 47 counts and stores the necessity for each attribute based on the necessity result of the POI information acquired by the necessity selection acquisition unit 46. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a data structure in the selection attribute information storage unit 47, and shows the storage results (required set times) for the attributes of each genre and region.

The useful history extraction unit 48 determines user selection attribute information that can be used to determine whether or not providing POI information is useful to the user from the user selection attribute information stored in the selection attribute information storage unit 47. . For example, if there is a genre or area visited a predetermined number of times within a predetermined period, it is determined as selection attribute information that can be used for determination. The user selection attribute information determined in this way is referred to as useful selection attribute information.

In this way, it is possible to exclude attributes having a low degree of interest of the user, such as an area that the user has visited a long time ago, or a genre that has been visited only a few times, from a large number of accumulated user selection attribute information. Also, highly useful attribute information can be automatically determined without inputting designated attribute information that the user wants positively.

The determination means 5 determines whether the POI information received by the POI information acquisition means 3 is useful for the user in comparison with the user information acquired by the user information acquisition means 4, and includes an attribute comparison unit 54, A determination unit 55 and a determination result transmission unit 56 are provided.

The attribute comparison unit 54 extracts the store attributes extracted by the attribute information extraction unit 32 of the POI information acquisition unit 3, user-specified attribute information and useful history extraction stored in the attribute information acquisition unit 45 of the user information acquisition unit 4. A function of comparing the useful selection attribute information extracted by the unit 48 is provided.

As a result of the comparison by the attribute comparison unit 51, the determination unit 55 determines whether or not these match or the store attribute information is included in the user attribute information, and the match or store attribute information is included in the user attribute information If it is, the fact that the POI information is useful is output to the determination result sending unit 56.

The determination result sending unit 56 creates information to be presented to the user and processes the POI information deemed useful from the determination unit 55. For example, when store attribute information and user attribute information match or store attribute information is included in the user attribute information, the store name is displayed on the display 82 as shown in FIG. Execute data creation.

FIG. 14 is an example of a screen created by the determination result sending unit 56 and the POI information editing unit 721 when it is determined by the attribute information that the received store position is useful.

As shown in FIG. 14, the determination result sending unit 56 and the POI information editing unit 721 display an input menu such as “register” for registering the position information of the displayed POI, and “display a surrounding map”. ”, An input menu such as“ Display detailed information ”that displays detailed information on the store, and an input menu such as“ I need this information ”that indicates whether the information on the presented store is necessary Are also created and displayed on the display 82.

When an input menu of these options is selected by the user, that effect is output to the output control means 7, a map around the store and detailed information on the store are displayed on the display 82, and an input menu for “register” When is selected, the POI information is stored in the POI information storage means 6. Furthermore, as described above, when an input menu for which this information is necessary is turned ON, a message to that effect is sent to the necessity selection acquisition unit 46 of the user information acquisition unit 4.

In the example shown in the figure, in addition to the store name, options such as registering, displaying a surrounding map, displaying detailed information, and needing this information are displayed, but there are other images such as the appearance of the store. For example, the image can be displayed, or the surrounding map can be directly displayed instead of the selection of the surrounding map display.

The POI information storage means 6 is a storage medium for storing store information when a store registration request presented to the user is requested on the display screen shown in FIG. The POI information storage means 6 stores the store information and the location information and genre of the store.

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of store information stored in the POI information storage unit 6. In this example, details of the name, address, latitude / longitude, telephone number, and genre are described as store information stored in the POI information storage unit 6. In addition, the information stored in the POI information storage means 6 includes, for example, received store information, image information such as the store's exterior and interior, text information such as recommended menus and announcements to the user, etc. More detailed information can also be stored.

The output unit 7 is sent from the digital broadcast decoding unit 2 and the audio output control unit 71 for executing control for outputting the audio data sent from the digital broadcast decoding unit 2 by the speaker 81 of the output unit 8. And an image / character output control unit 72 that executes control for causing the display 82 of the output means 8 to output image / character data.

The image / character output control unit 72 includes a POI information editing unit 721 that edits the POI information acquired by the POI information acquisition unit 3 and selected by the determination unit 5, and a map information acquisition unit that acquires map information from the navigation device 91. 722. Then, the POI information editing unit 721 adds an input menu option to the POI information based on the result sent from the determination result sending unit 56 of the determination unit 5, and performs image processing for superimposing these on the map information. Execute and output to the display 82.

Next, an operation flow of the information providing apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing an information processing procedure of the information providing apparatus according to the present embodiment.

In step S1601, when the antenna 11 and the digital broadcast tuner unit 12 of the digital broadcast receiving unit 1 receive the digital broadcast signal and extract only a predetermined frequency component designated by the user, the digital broadcast decoding unit 2 is extracted in step S1602. The data processing unit 21 starts decoding the broadcast.

When decoded by the data processing unit 21, the broadcast signal is separated into audio data and image / character data, and the audio data is output from the speaker 81 via the audio output control unit 71 of the output control means 7.

On the other hand, the image / character data is determined in step S1603 as to whether or not there is POI information as shown in FIG. 9 in the data, and if there is no POI information, it is processed as normal BML data, and then proceeds to step S1604. The digital broadcast image or character is displayed on the display 82 via the image / character output control unit 72 of the output means 7.

When the POI information as shown in FIG. 9 exists in the image / character data, the process proceeds to step S1605, where the attribute information extraction unit 32 of the POI information acquisition unit 3 extracts the attribute information included in the POI information, It outputs to the attribute comparison part 54 of the determination means 5. The POI information itself is temporarily held by the POI information acquisition unit 3 until the result of the determination unit 55 of the determination unit 5 is obtained.

In the next step S1606, the attribute comparison unit 54 reads the current user-specified attribute information acquired by the specified attribute information acquisition unit 45 of the user information acquisition unit 4 in order to determine the usefulness of the attribute information.

In step S1607, the attribute information of the POI information extracted in step S1605 is compared with the current user-specified attribute information extracted in step S1606.

In step S1608, it is determined whether or not the attribute information of the POI information compared in step S1607 matches or includes the current user-specified attribute information. If included, the POI information is useful for the user. The process proceeds to step S1609, and the POI information is displayed on the display 82 via the POI information editing unit 721 of the output control means 7. An example of this display screen is shown in FIG. 14, and the location of the store is displayed superimposed on the map. Also, as shown in the figure, input menus such as “Register” and “This information is necessary” are also displayed, and when the user selects, the processing for each item is executed.

In this example, the case where the determination result sending unit 56 and the POI information editing unit 721 create a POI information provision screen has been described, but the provision screen may be stored in the POI information storage unit 6 without being presented.

Thus, by giving priority to the determination process based on the user-specified attribute information currently set by the user over the user-selected attribute information described later, it is possible to provide POI information currently useful to the user, The processing time of the information providing apparatus according to this embodiment can be shortened.

That is, in the present embodiment, the usefulness of the POI information is first determined based on the user-specified attribute information currently set by the user in steps S1606 to S1609. Since the POI information is presented without performing the usefulness determination based on the user selection attribute information executed in steps S1614 to S1618, the result of the usefulness determination based on the user selection attribute information is not useful. As long as the usefulness determination based on the current user-specified attribute information is useful, the POI information is presented to the user. Conversely, even if the usefulness determination result based on the user-selected attribute information is useful, the POI information is not presented to the user as long as the usefulness determination based on the current user-specified attribute information is not useful. .

If POI information is displayed on the display 82 in step S1609, in step S1610, input of the necessity of information by the user is awaited. The necessity of information is determined based on whether or not the input menu “This information is necessary” on the display screen of FIG. 14 is turned on.

If it is determined in step S1610 that the user does not input that this information is necessary, the process ends. If there is an input that indicates that this information is necessary, the process proceeds to step S1611, and the attribute has been set in the past. It is determined whether or not the attribute is selected. If the attribute has been selected in the past, the process advances to step S1612 to count up the number of attribute selections stored in the selection attribute information storage unit 47. In the example shown in FIG. 13, when attribute information of a ramen shop is presented as POI information, if the user inputs that this POI information is necessary, the attribute information of the genre attribute ramen is 15 times. To update 16 times.

On the other hand, if the attribute has not been selected in the past in step S1611, the process proceeds to step S1613, and the attribute is newly added to the selected attribute information storage unit 47.

Returning to step S1608, if the attribute information of the POI information extracted by the specified attribute information extraction unit 32 of the POI information acquisition unit 3 does not include the user-specified attribute information currently set by the user, the process proceeds to step S1614. Comparison with useful selection attribute information extracted by the useful history extraction unit 48 is executed.

Steps S <b> 1615 to S <b> 1616 are processes executed by the useful history extraction unit 48. The useful history extraction unit 48 determines whether or not the user selection attribute information stored in the selection attribute information storage unit 47 includes an attribute selected a predetermined number of times within a predetermined period, and attribute information that satisfies this condition To extract. Since the attribute information extracted here can be regarded as an attribute that the user is particularly interested in recently among the user selection attribute information stored in the selection attribute information storage unit 47, this is used as useful selection attribute information. , Used to determine the usefulness of POI information.

In step S1617, the useful selection attribute information extracted in step S1616 is used as the user attribute information, and the attribute information of the POI information extracted by the attribute information extraction unit 32 of the POI information acquisition unit 3 matches the user attribute information. Determine whether it contains. If the attribute information of the POI information includes the user attribute information, the process proceeds to step S1618, where the POI information is displayed on the display 82 via the POI information editing unit 721 of the output control means 7, and the process ends. To do. Note that if the attribute information of the POI information does not include the user attribute information, the process is terminated without presenting the POI information.

As described above, according to the information providing apparatus and the information providing method of this embodiment, the usefulness of the POI information is determined based on the user-specified attribute information or the user-selected attribute information, and is output to a display or the like only when there is usefulness. Therefore, only the POI information required for the user is automatically distributed, and convenience is improved.

  In addition, since the usefulness determination based on the user-specified attribute information is executed with priority over the usefulness determination based on the user-selected attribute information, POI information that is currently useful to the user can be selected and provided.

  Also, since useful selection attribute information is used when determining usefulness based on user selection attribute information, it excludes places that are not so useful to the current user, such as places that have been visited only a few times or places that have been used a long time ago. can do.

  Note that in the embodiment of the process shown in FIG. 16, steps S1610 to S1618 can be omitted, and the usefulness of the POI information can be determined based only on the user-specified attribute information. Conversely, steps S1606 to S1609 can be omitted, and the usefulness of the POI information can be determined based only on the user selection attribute information.

Furthermore, when determining the usefulness of the POI information based on the user selection attribute information, the usefulness of the POI information can be determined using all the user selection attribute information instead of the useful selection attribute information. In addition, when there are a plurality of pieces of useful selection attribute information, for example, it is possible to narrow down to information having the largest number of selections.

  Also, a plurality of POI information determined to be useful can be ordered in descending order of usefulness and displayed on the display 82 or stored in the POI information storage unit 6.

It is a block diagram which shows the information provision apparatus which concerns on 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the data structure memorize | stored in the log | history position information storage part which concerns on 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the accumulation | storage process of the log | history position by the log | history position information storage part which concerns on 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the extraction process of useful historical position information by the useful log | history extraction part which concerns on 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen provided by the information provision apparatus which concerns on 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the other example of the screen provided by the information provision apparatus which concerns on 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of a data structure of the shop information memorize | stored in the POI information storage means which concerns on 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the information processing procedure of the information provision apparatus which concerns on 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a data structure figure which shows an example of the POI information contained in the delivery information of the digital broadcast which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the information provision apparatus which concerns on 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the input screen of the user designation | designated attribute information which concerns on 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the content of the attribute information in 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the data structure of the selection attribute information storage part which concerns on 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen provided by the information provision apparatus which concerns on 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the shop information memorize | stored in the POI information storage means which concerns on 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the information processing procedure of the information provision apparatus which concerns on 2nd Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Digital broadcast receiving means 2 ... Digital broadcast decoding means 3 ... POI information acquisition means 4 ... User information acquisition means 5 ... Determination means 6 ... POI information storage means 7 ... Output control means 8 ... Output means 9 ... Input means

Claims (16)

Output means for outputting distribution information by digital broadcasting to the user;
POI information acquisition means for acquiring POI information related to a point that the user is interested in, included in the distribution information;
User information acquisition means for acquiring user information input by the user;
An information providing apparatus comprising: a determination unit that outputs the POI information to the output unit only when a comparison result between the user information and the POI information satisfies a predetermined condition defined in advance. In the information provision apparatus of Claim 1,
The user information acquisition means includes at least one of the current position information of the user, the position information of the currently set destination, the position information of the currently set waypoint, and the position information of the currently set route. Two current location information,
The POI information acquisition means acquires POI position information of a point included in the acquired POI information,
The determination means calculates a distance or a required time between the two positions from the current position information acquired by the user information acquisition means and the POI position information acquired by the POI information acquisition means, and determines the distance or the required time. Only when at least one is below a predetermined value, the POI information is output to the output means. In the information provision apparatus of Claim 1,
The user information acquisition means acquires at least one history position information among position information of a destination set in the past by the user, position information of a waypoint, and position information of a route,
The POI information acquisition means acquires POI position information of a point included in the acquired POI information,
The determination means calculates a distance or required time between the two positions from the history position information acquired by the user information acquisition means and the POI position information acquired by the POI information acquisition means, and the distance or required time. Only when at least one of the values is equal to or less than a predetermined value, the POI information is output to the output means. In the information provision apparatus of Claim 3,
The information providing apparatus, wherein the user information acquisition unit acquires the history position information having a set frequency equal to or higher than a predetermined value. In the information provision apparatus of Claim 1,
The user information acquisition means includes at least one of the current position information of the user, the position information of the currently set destination, the position information of the currently set waypoint, and the position information of the currently set route. Two current position information, and at least one history position information among the position information of the destination set in the past by the user, the position information of the waypoint, and the position information of the route,
The POI information acquisition means extracts POI position information of a point included in the acquired POI information,
The determination means includes
A distance or required time between the two positions is calculated from the history position information acquired by the user information acquisition means and the POI position information acquired by the POI information acquisition means, and at least one of the distance or the required time is a predetermined value. Even if it exceeds
A distance or required time between the two positions is calculated from the current position information acquired by the user information acquisition means and the POI position information acquired by the POI information acquisition means, and at least one of the distance or the required time is a predetermined value. In the following cases, the POI information is output to the output means. In the information provision apparatus of Claim 1,
The user information acquisition means includes at least one of the current position information of the user, the position information of the currently set destination, the position information of the currently set waypoint, and the position information of the currently set route. Two current position information, and at least one history position information among the position information of the destination set in the past by the user, the position information of the waypoint, and the position information of the route,
The POI information acquisition means extracts POI position information of a point included in the acquired POI information,
The determination means includes
A distance or required time between the two positions is calculated from the history position information acquired by the user information acquisition means and the POI position information acquired by the POI information acquisition means, and at least one of the distance or the required time is a predetermined value. Even in the following cases
A distance or required time between the two positions is calculated from the current position information acquired by the user information acquisition means and the POI position information acquired by the POI information acquisition means, and at least one of the distance or the required time is a predetermined value. The information providing apparatus is characterized in that the POI information is not output to the output means when exceeding. In the information provision apparatus as described in any one of Claims 2-6,
The information providing apparatus characterized in that the determination means outputs the POI information determined to be output to the output means by adding the distance between the two positions and / or the required time. In the information provision apparatus as described in any one of Claims 4-6,
When there are a plurality of the POI information to be output to the output means, the determination means indicates the distance between the positions and / or the required time for the history position information having the highest setting frequency among the history position information. An information providing apparatus for adding to the POI information and outputting the information. In the information provision apparatus as described in any one of Claims 2-8,
A POI information storage means for storing the POI information determined to be output to the output means;
The POI information storage means stores the distance between the positions calculated by the determination means and / or the required time in association with the POI information. In the information provision apparatus of Claim 1,
The user information acquisition means acquires at least one user-specified attribute information input by the user,
The POI information acquisition means acquires POI attribute information of a point included in the acquired POI information,
The determination means outputs the POI information to the output means only when the POI attribute information acquired by the POI information acquisition means matches or is included in the user-specified attribute information acquired by the user information acquisition means. An information providing apparatus characterized by the above. In the information provision apparatus of Claim 1,
The user information acquisition means acquires user selection attribute information that the user has selected as necessary from the user selecting whether or not the distribution information is required for the distribution information presented by the output means,
The POI information acquisition means acquires POI attribute information of a point included in the acquired POI information,
The determination means outputs the POI information to the output means only when the POI attribute information acquired by the POI information acquisition means is included in the user selection attribute information acquired by the user information acquisition means. A characteristic information providing apparatus. The information providing apparatus according to claim 11,
The information providing apparatus, wherein the user information acquisition means acquires user selection attribute information having a selection frequency equal to or higher than a predetermined value. In the information provision apparatus as described in any one of Claims 10-12,
The user-specified attribute information, the user-selected attribute information, and the POI attribute information are related to the type of the point, the genre of the service provided at the point, the area to which the point belongs, the name of the recommender of the point, and the point An information providing apparatus characterized in that the information providing apparatus is at least one of the names of artists. In the information provision apparatus as described in any one of Claims 1-13,
The output means acquires map information including a point related to the POI information based on the POI position information and presents it to the user. In the information provision apparatus as described in any one of Claims 1-14,
The information providing apparatus, wherein the POI information is information related to a store that sells products or provides services, information related to entertainment facilities or event facilities, or information related to sightseeing spots. Receiving distribution information by digital broadcasting; and
Obtaining POI information relating to a point of interest of the user included in the distribution information;
Obtaining user information input by the user;
And a step of outputting the POI information to the user only when a comparison result between the user information and the POI information satisfies a predetermined condition defined in advance.

Images