Patent ID: 8639569
Filing Date: 2014-01-28
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. An information processing method in an information processing device to receive usage information relating to an item which has been used in another device, the method comprising: a usage history storage step of storing, in a usage history storage section, a usage history that at least associates a use subject identifier for identifying a user or a terminal device a user has used, with a used item identifier, which is an item identifier for identifying an item used by a user, based on the usage information; an associated data creation step of calculating a degree of similarity between two item identifiers based on usage histories stored in the usage history storage section and creating associated data to be provided to the other device, wherein the associated data causes a base item identifier and an associated item identifier to correspond to each other using the degree of similarity, the base item identifier is an item identifier of a base item, and the associated item identifier is an item identifier of an associated item similar to the base item; and a point distribution calculation step of calculating a change value to change a point value managed for each of the use subject identifiers, wherein the usage information corresponding to usage of the associated item based on the associated data in the other device is information including specific information capable of specifying a base item identifier corresponding to the associated item identifier of the used item, in the usage history storage step, a usage history causing the use subject identifier, the used item identifier, and the specific information at least to correspond to one another is stored in the usage history storage section, and the point distribution calculation step includes: a previous usage history set formation step of selecting one usage history having the specific information from the usage history storage section, and forming a first previous usage history set which is a set of other usage histories having the same used item identifier as the base item identifier specified by the specific information of the one usage history and being older than the one usage history; and a change value calculation step of calculating a change value to change the point value for a plurality of use subject identifiers which is at least a part of a user set, wherein the user set is a set of use subject identifiers included in the first previous usage history set.