JP2000099525A - Information providing method and apparatus based on periodic interest change of user and recording medium recording information providing program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To record an information providing method and an information providing program based on a periodic interest change of a user and an information providing program, which provide only necessary information which is interesting to a user at an optimal timing accurately. Provide media. SOLUTION: Interesting information of each user is created as a user profile based on a life pattern of each user which changes periodically for each time zone, and the freshness of the information and the number of people who referred to the information change over time. Information characteristics to be created as an article profile, and based on the user profile and the article profile, select and distribute appropriate information content to each user at each time slot, and obtain the information content reference status of each user And feed back to the user profile and article profile.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention records an information providing method and apparatus and an information providing program for selecting and providing necessary information to a user based on a periodic change in the user's interest from a large amount of information. In more detail, in the system comprising an information providing server, a user terminal, and a network connecting these, the information provider mainly performs information distribution, and provides the user with a large amount of information. The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing information based on a periodic change in interest of a Push-type user using an information filtering technique of selecting necessary information and providing information to the user, and a recording medium on which an information providing program is recorded.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Services using information filtering include Excite Live !, My Yahoo, and InfoBroket.
Excite Live !, My Yahoo, etc., guess the user's taste based on the user's attributes such as occupation, gender, age, place of residence, etc. and the user's selected classification, and select information. Also, Info
Broket estimates the user's taste from the user's usage situation.

[0003] In the information content provided by the Push type information providing system, the information provided by the information provider is transmitted to the user as it is.

[0004]

The conventional Pus described above.
A problem with the h-type information providing system is that a large amount of unnecessary information is sent to the user. That is, since all information provided by the information provider is sent to the user, even information unnecessary for the user reaches the user. Even if the user can select the provided content, it is only about selecting the content classification. Therefore, "information filtering" is required for each user, but the following problems can be considered.

[0005] (1) Information is not provided according to a change in interest of the same person that changes with time.

For example, before going to work, road information and weather forecast,
Necessary information differs depending on the time of the day, such as entertainment information during the lunch and news in the evening. It is easy for the user to use if the interest that occurs periodically from such a human life pattern is grasped and information is provided accordingly.

(2) The change of each information characteristic for each time zone is not taken into consideration.

[0008] Each information is independent of the behavior of each user,
It is thought to have the optimal delivery time. For example, it is better to provide breaking news etc. to the user soon after the article is generated. Among them, big news is convenient if it is provided to unread users even after a short time.

[0009] The present invention has been made in view of the above,
The purpose is to provide an information providing method and apparatus based on a periodic interest change of a user and a recording medium on which an information providing program is recorded, which accurately provides only necessary information that is interesting to the user at an optimal timing. To provide.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, information contents from a plurality of information providers are collected and edited by an information providing server, and the collected and edited information contents are collected. An information providing method for providing to a user terminal via a computer network,
Information of interest of each user is created as a user profile based on the life pattern of each user that changes periodically for each time zone, and the time-varying information characteristics such as the freshness of the information and the number of people who referred to the information are created. Create an article profile, select and distribute appropriate information content to each user for each time zone based on the user profile and the article profile, acquire the reference status of information content of each user, The gist is to provide feedback to the user profile and the article profile.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, information of interest of each user based on the life pattern of each user that changes periodically for each time zone is created as a user profile, and the freshness of the information and Create a time-varying information characteristic of the number of people who referred to the information as an article profile,
Based on the user profile and the article profile, the appropriate information content is selected and distributed to each user at each time slot, and the information content reference status of each user is fed back to the user profile and the article profile. It is possible to provide only the information contents of interest to the user that occur periodically from the life pattern of the user at the optimal timing in consideration of the freshness and the number of reference persons.

The present invention according to claim 2 provides the present invention according to claim 1.
In the invention described in the above, the user profile is created for each user, the access status to each information field is totaled for each time zone, an interest pattern is estimated, and the recommendation level of each information field is indicated. Is the gist.

According to the present invention, the user profile sums up the access status to each information field for each time zone, estimates the interest pattern, and indicates the degree of recommendation of each information field.

Further, the present invention according to claim 3 provides the invention according to claim 1.
In the invention described in the above, the article profile is created for each article, and a value representing the optimal provision timing degree of each article on a time axis is set as a recommended value, and the recommended value is the freshness of the article and all users. The gist is to determine the priority of articles to be provided to the user by comparing the recommended values with the number of references.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the article profile is a recommended value that represents the optimum provision timing of each article on the time axis, and the recommended value is the freshness of the article and the total use of the article. It determines the priority of articles to be provided to users by comparing recommended values.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the third aspect of the present invention, the process of selecting and delivering the information content to each user is performed based on the user profile and the article profile. A summary that information content to be provided is selected, an information field is determined in the user profile based on a designated time zone, and information content in the information field is determined by a priority order from the article profile. I do.

According to the present invention, the information content is selected based on the user profile and the article profile, and the information field is determined by the user profile based on the designated time zone. Are determined by the priority order from the article profile.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, information contents from a plurality of information providers are collected and edited by an information providing server, and the collected and edited information contents are provided to a user terminal via a computer network. An information providing apparatus, comprising: a user profile creating means for creating, as a user profile, information of interest of each user based on a life pattern of each user that periodically changes for each time zone; Article profile creation means for creating a time-varying information characteristic of the number of people referred to as an article profile, and selecting appropriate information content for each user for each time zone based on the user profile and the article profile. The selective distribution means to distribute and the reference status of the information content of each user are acquired, and the user And summarized in that and a feedback means for feeding back the file and the articles profiles.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, interesting information of each user based on a life pattern of each user that changes periodically for each time zone is created as a user profile, and the freshness of the information and Create a time-varying information characteristic of the number of people who referred to the information as an article profile,
Based on the user profile and the article profile, the appropriate information content is selected and distributed to each user at each time slot, and the information content reference status of each user is fed back to the user profile and the article profile. It is possible to provide only the information contents of interest to the user that occur periodically from the life pattern of the user at the optimal timing in consideration of the freshness and the number of reference persons.

Further, the present invention according to claim 6 provides the present invention according to claim 5.
In the invention described in the above, the user profile is created for each user, the access status to each information field is totaled for each time zone, an interest pattern is estimated, and the recommendation level of each information field is indicated. Is the gist.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, the user profile sums up the access status to each information field for each time period, estimates the interest pattern, and indicates the degree of recommendation of each information field.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the fifth aspect of the present invention, the article profile is created for each article, and represents an optimal provision timing of each article on a time axis. The recommended value is determined based on the freshness of the article and the number of references from all users. The gist is to determine the priority of articles provided to users by comparing the recommended values.

According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, the article profile is a recommended value that represents the optimal provision timing of each article on the time axis, and the recommended value is the freshness of the article and the total use of the article. It determines the priority of articles to be provided to users by comparing recommended values.

The present invention according to claim 8 provides the present invention according to claim 7.
In the described invention, the selective distribution means selects information content to be provided to a user based on the user profile and the article profile, and an information field is determined in the user profile based on a designated time zone, The gist is that the information content in the information field is configured to be determined by the priority order from the article profile.

According to the present invention, the information content is selected based on the user profile and the article profile, and the information field is determined by the user profile based on the designated time zone. Are determined by the priority order from the article profile.

Further, according to the ninth aspect of the present invention, information contents from a plurality of information providers are collected and edited by an information providing server, and the collected and edited information contents are provided to a user terminal via a computer network. A recording medium on which an information providing program is recorded, wherein information of interest of each user based on a life pattern of each user that periodically changes for each time zone is created as a user profile,
A time-varying information characteristic such as the freshness of information and the number of people who referred to the information is created as an article profile, and appropriate information content is selected for each user for each time zone based on the user profile and the article profile. And distribute the information, obtain the reference status of the information content of each user, and record on a recording medium an information providing program based on the periodic interest change of the user who feeds back to the user profile and the article profile. I do.

According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, information of each user's interest based on a life pattern of each user that changes periodically for each time zone is created as a user profile, and the freshness of the information and Create a time-varying information characteristic of the number of people who referred to the information as an article profile,
An information providing program that selects and distributes appropriate information content to each user for each time zone based on the user profile and the article profile, and feeds back the information content reference status of each user to the user profile and the article profile. Is recorded on a recording medium, the distribution of the recording medium can be enhanced by using the recording medium.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the invention of the ninth aspect, the user profile is created for each user, and the access status to each information field is totaled for each time zone. The gist of the present invention is to estimate an interest pattern and record an information providing program based on a periodic interest change of a user indicating a recommendation degree of each information field on a recording medium.

According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, the user profile tallies the access status to each information field for each time zone, estimates an interest pattern, and provides information indicating the degree of recommendation of each information field. Since the program is recorded on the recording medium, the distribution of the program can be enhanced by using the recording medium.

According to the eleventh aspect of the present invention, in the ninth aspect of the invention, the article profile is created for each article, and the optimal provision timing of each article is represented on a time axis. The recommended value is determined by the freshness of the article and the number of references from all users. By comparing the recommended values, the user's periodicity to determine the priority of articles provided to the user is determined. The gist is to record an information providing program based on a change in interest on a recording medium.

According to the eleventh aspect of the present invention, the article profile is a recommended value that represents the optimum provision timing of each article on the time axis, and the recommended value is the freshness of the article and the total use of the article. Is determined by the number of references from the user, and by comparing the recommended values, the information providing program for determining the priority of the articles to be provided to the user is recorded on the recording medium. Can be increased.

According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, in the invention of the eleventh aspect, the process of selecting and distributing the information content to each user is performed based on the user profile and the article profile. Information content to be provided to the user, the information field is determined by the user profile based on the designated time zone,
The gist of the present invention is to record an information providing program based on a periodic interest change of a user whose information content in the information field is determined by the priority order from the article profile on a recording medium.

According to the twelfth aspect of the present invention, the information content is selected based on the user profile and the article profile, and the information field is determined by the user profile based on the designated time zone. Since an information providing program in which the information content is determined by the priority order from the article profile is recorded on a recording medium, the distribution of the information content can be improved by using the recording medium.

[0034]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a system for implementing an information providing method according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the system shown in the figure, information contents from a plurality of information
The collected and edited information content is provided to the user terminal 3 via the computer network. In the provision of the information content, as shown in FIG. Create interesting information of each user based on the periodically changing life pattern of each user as a user profile. Further, the time-varying information characteristics such as the freshness of the information and the number of people who referred to the information are defined as an article profile. Based on the created user profile and article profile, an appropriate information content is selected for each time zone and distributed to each user terminal 3. The usage status, that is, the reference status is returned to the information providing server 1, and the user profile and the article profile are returned. It is fed back to the file.

In the user profile, the interest that changes for each time zone often depends on the life pattern of each user. That is, it is considered that the interest of each user also appears periodically in a cycle such as daily or weekly depending on the life pattern. Therefore, in the following, such an interest based on the life pattern of the user is defined as an interest pattern.

The information content handled in the present embodiment is intended for information that the information provider 2 regularly updates in a short period of time, such as every day or every week. Specifically, it is a news article, new arrival information, or the like. Further, information contents are classified by genre such as politics, international, and economy, and this classification is called a channel. The channel is
It should be fine enough to include articles with similar contents, such as Tokyo weather and World Cup information.

In the systems shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a user profile is generated by summing up the access status of each user to each content. This data indicates the degree of recommendation of each channel when a time zone is specified. ing.

A method of setting a user profile will be described. User profiles are set for each user,
The time period during which each channel is accessed is recorded. Then, a habitually repeated access is regarded as an interest pattern, and a time schedule is set for each day of the week.

Regarding the article profile, regardless of each user, the freshness of the content and the usage status of all users that change according to the time zone are characteristics, and from this characteristic, the optimal provision timing is determined for each time zone. In numerical values. Here, in order to express the characteristic of the content itself with respect to time, the content is handled in units of articles, and this is used as an article profile. The freshness of the content indicates the elapsed time from the time when the article was generated, and the usage status of all users for each article simply represents the recognition of the article.

The setting method of the article profile will be described. The recommended value is a value indicating the optimal provision timing of each article on the time axis. This recommended value is determined based on the article start and end times and the access history of all users. By comparing the recommended values, the priorities of articles provided to users are determined.

The method of calculating the recommended value is performed as described below. (1) Each article is given an initial value, an article publication start time and an end time. (2) The time transition of the freshness of each article is determined from these pieces of information. (3) The freshness is corrected by the time at which the next updated article is added to the channel to which the article belongs. The access rate of all users to each article is calculated at regular intervals, and the access rate at the current time is estimated from the calculated value. (4) The freshness is corrected according to the estimated access rate, and a recommended value is determined.

The information content provided to the user terminal 3 is selected based on the user profile and the article profile set as described above. That is, a channel is determined by a user profile for a certain time zone, and the articles in the determined channel are determined by the priority from the article profile.

In the above embodiment, the habitual pattern of interest of each user can be grasped, and the information content can be selected based on the pattern of interest. For example, Mr. A has a habit of going to work after seeing the weather forecast and news articles every morning, checking sports news in the afternoon, and entertainment news in the evening. For Mr. A, (morning): weather forecast, news, (noon): sports news, (evening):
Content is automatically selected and provided at the timing of entertainment news.

The information contents selected in this way are:
The characteristics of the information are taken into account by a value calculated from the freshness and the number of persons who have referred to the information. For example, the news provided to Mr. A also reflects information characteristics such as news that has high freshness, such as breaking news, which has passed only a short time after occurrence, and news that many people have referred to.

Next, with reference to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, this embodiment in the case where the Internet (WWW) is used will be described. First, the information provider 2 sends the information content to the information providing server 1 (). An article profile is created for each article from the information content thus collected, and is stored in the database (). Next, a user profile of each user is created from the behavior in which the user terminal 3 refers to the content ().

Then, articles are classified and selected for each user from the user profile and article profile created as described above (). The information content selected in this way is transmitted to each user terminal 3 by Push (). Next, when the information content is referred to by the user, the usage status is fed back, and the user profile and the article profile are updated.

Next, generation and management of a user profile will be described with reference to FIG. The user profile includes a method in which all users are provided on the information providing server 1 side and a method in which each user terminal 3 stores the user profiles. In the former case, the load on the user terminal 3 is small, but when the number of users increases, the server load becomes a problem. In addition, since the usage status of each user is downloaded one by one, traffic increases. In the latter case, the load on the server decreases, but the load on the user terminal 3 increases.

The user interface function of the user terminal agent will be described. The interface shows the headline of the article, and the user can refer to the details from the headline of the article. A channel is selected from time to time according to the user's habit, and the headline of the displayed article changes. Users can also change channels and view articles outside of the offerings.

Next, a method for setting a user profile will be described with reference to FIG. The user profile is set for each user. Here, each user is referred to as Un (U1
To Un), t for each time zone, and Chn (Ch1 to C
hn).

As the recording of each channel selection time zone, a selection start time, an end time, and the number of times of selection of each channel are recorded (to correspond to a user who sees only the headline). The selection start time of the channel Chn is ts (chn),
Assuming that the selection end time of hn is te (Chn), (1) the selection start time ts (Chn) and the selection end time te (Chn) of each channel Chn for one week are recorded. That is, a period between the channel selection start time ts (Chn) and the channel selection end time te (Chn) is regarded as the channel selection time ts-te. (2) It is regarded as a habit that ts-te (Chn) is repeatedly used within the threshold value, and a time schedule for channel Chn for one day (D) and for each day of the week (W) is set. This is referred to as [1]. (3) Based on each day of the week (W), D corresponds to a sudden change in interest that occurs. If the usage is repeated every day more than a predetermined number of times, it is reflected in W on the next day. A change in the usage status of the user is expressed quickly on a daily basis.

The time and the number of times the text is referred to from the headline included in each channel are recorded. Each channel Chn
, The number of accesses from the headline at time t to the text is a (t, Chn), and the access rate, which is a value obtained by normalizing the number of accesses a (t, Chn), is A (t, Chn).
(1) Record the access rate A (t, Chn) for one week. (2) It is regarded as a habit that there are repeated accesses within t + threshold from the time t of the access rate A (t, Chn) for one week, and the time of one day (D) of the channel Chn and each day of the week (W) Set a schedule. This is [2]
And (3) Based on each day of the week (W), D corresponds to a sudden change in interest that occurs. If the usage is repeated every day more than a predetermined number of times, it is reflected in W on the next day.

The time of the schedule [1] is narrowed down by the schedule [2] described above. Then, the providing channel is determined for each time t from the time schedule of the channels Ch1 to Chn.

Next, an article profile setting method will be described with reference to FIG. The recommended value is a value indicating the optimal provision timing of each article on the time axis. This recommended value is determined based on the publication start time and end time of the article, and the access history of all users.

In the method of calculating the recommended value, each article is
rtn (Arta to Artn), initial value is f (0), publication start time is t0, publication end time is tn, time at which the next updated article is added is t0 ', access rate of all users is u0, guessed U (t) is the access rate at the current time, and f is the time transition of freshness.
(t).

The method of calculating the recommended value is as follows: (1) The initial value (f (0)) for each article, the publication start time (t0) and the end time (t
1) is given. (2) The time transition f (t) of the freshness of each article is determined from {f (0), t0, t1}. (3) f (t) is corrected by the time (tn) at which the next updated article is added to the channel to which the article belongs. (4) The access rate of all users to each article is fed back to the article profile together with the time at each fixed time (u
0). (5) The access rate (ut) at the current time is estimated from the value (u0) thus fed back. (6) The value of f (t) is corrected by ut every time, and a recommended value is determined. (7) By comparing the recommended values of the articles, the priority of the articles provided to the user is determined.

From the user profile and article profile set as described above, an article provided to the user is selected as shown below.

First, a channel is determined by a user profile for a certain time zone. Articles in a channel are determined by priority from the article profile. Further, it is possible to select a provided article based on a recommended value of each article from an article profile in a certain time zone. Provide users with recommended values above a certain threshold. As the threshold value, a value that can be set by each user is used. Depending on how the threshold is given, a very large value will provide a small number of articles. If the value is set to a very small value, the selection method can be changed such that all articles are provided regardless of the recommended value.

[0058]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Information of interest of each user is created as a user profile based on the life pattern of each user that changes periodically for each time zone, and the time-varying information characteristics such as the freshness of the information and the number of people who referred to the information are created. Creates an article profile, selects and distributes appropriate information content to each user for each time zone based on the user profile and the article profile, and also refers to each user's information content reference status in the user profile and the article profile. , It is possible to provide only information contents of interest to the user that occur periodically from the user's life pattern at the optimal timing in consideration of the freshness and the number of reference persons.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a system for implementing an information providing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration of the system shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an overall flow of the system shown in FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a series of flows in the system shown in FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a generation management location of a user profile.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a setting method of a user profile.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a setting method of an article profile.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 information providing server 2 information provider 3 user terminal

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. An information providing method for collecting and editing information contents from a plurality of information providers in an information providing server and providing the collected and edited information contents to a user terminal via a computer network. Each user's interesting information based on the life pattern of each user that changes periodically for each user is created as a user profile, and the time-varying information characteristics such as the freshness of the information and the number of people who referred to the information are described in the article profile. And selecting and distributing appropriate information content to each user for each time zone based on the user profile and the article profile, acquiring a reference status of information content of each user, and obtaining the user profile And feed back to the article profile based on the periodic interest change of the user. Information providing method. 2. The user profile is created for each user, sums up the access status to each information field for each time slot, estimates an interest pattern, and indicates the degree of recommendation of each information field. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the information is provided based on a periodic interest change of the user. 3. The article profile is created for each article, and a recommended value is a value representing the optimal provision timing of each article on a time axis. The recommended value is the freshness of the article and all users. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the priority of articles to be provided to the user is determined by comparing the recommended values with the number of references from the user. . 4. A process of selecting and delivering the information content to each user, selecting information content to be provided to the user based on the user profile and the article profile, and selecting the information content based on a designated time zone. 4. The method according to claim 3, wherein an information field is determined by the user profile, and information content in the information field is determined by a priority order from the article profile. Information provision method. 5. An information providing apparatus which collects and edits information contents from a plurality of information providers in an information providing server and provides the collected and edited information contents to a user terminal via a computer network. A user profile creating means for creating, as a user profile, information of each user's interest based on a life pattern of each user that changes periodically for each user; Article profile creating means for creating information characteristics as an article profile; selecting and delivering means for selecting and delivering appropriate information content to each user for each time zone based on the user profile and the article profile; Obtain the reference status of the information content of the user and obtain the user profile and the article profile. Information providing apparatus based on the periodic interest change of the user and having a feedback means for feeding back the file. 6. The user profile is created for each user, aggregates the access status to each information field for each time slot, estimates an interest pattern, and indicates the degree of recommendation of each information field. The information providing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the information is provided based on a periodic interest change of the user. 7. The article profile is created for each article, and a value indicating the degree of optimal provision timing of each article on a time axis is set as a recommended value, and the recommended value is the freshness of the article and all users. 6. An information providing apparatus based on a periodic interest change of a user according to claim 5, wherein the priority of the article to be provided to the user is determined by comparing the recommended values with the reference number determined from the number of references. . 8. The selective distribution means selects information content to be provided to a user based on the user profile and the article profile, and determines an information field in the user profile based on a designated time zone;
8. The information providing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the information content in the information field is determined by a priority order from the article profile. 9. A recording medium storing an information providing program for collecting and editing information contents from a plurality of information providers by an information providing server and providing the collected and edited information contents to a user terminal via a computer network. Then, information of interest of each user is created as a user profile based on the life pattern of each user that periodically changes for each time zone, and the information changes over time such as the freshness of the information and the number of people who referred to the information. Creates information characteristics as an article profile, selects and distributes appropriate information content to each user for each time zone based on the user profile and the article profile, and acquires the reference status of information content of each user And providing feedback to the user profile and the article profile. Recording medium recording the information providing program based on periodic interest change of. 10. The user profile is created for each user, sums up access status to each information field for each time slot, estimates an interest pattern, and indicates the degree of recommendation of each information field. 10. A recording medium on which an information providing program based on a periodic interest change of a user according to claim 9 is recorded. 11. The article profile is created for each article, and a recommended value is a value representing the optimum provision timing of each article on a time axis, and the recommended value is the freshness of the article and all users. The information providing program according to the periodic interest change of the user according to claim 9, wherein the priority order of the article provided to the user is determined by comparing the recommended value with the reference number determined by the reference number from the user. Recording medium on which is recorded. 12. The process of selecting and delivering the information content to each user comprises selecting information content to be provided to the user based on the user profile and the article profile, and based on a designated time zone. 2. An information field is determined by the user profile, and information content in the information field is determined by a priority order from the article profile.
A recording medium recording the information providing program based on the periodic interest change of the user according to 1.