Patent ID: 9218587
Filing Date: 2015-12-22
Classification: G06Q,H04L

Abstract:
1. An information-providing method for implementing, on a computer system, a notification service that provides a notification relating to an item owned by a user, wherein the computer system includes a camera for capturing an image of the item, a non-transitory memory storing a program and a hardware processor that executes the program so as to perform the information-providing method, and the computer system stores therein a plurality of notifications that are each linked to one of a plurality of levels expressing possible conditions of the item, the plurality of levels including at least a first level at which condition of the item is suitable for using the item as a material for a certain objective and a second level at which condition of the item is not suitable for using the item as the material, and the notifications indicate suggestions to be provided to the user in accordance with a level, among the plurality of levels, corresponding to condition of the item, the information-providing method comprising: an acquisition step of acquiring, using the hardware processor, condition information indicating change in condition of the item resulting from aging or use thereof; a judgment step of judging, using the hardware processor, whether a current time is a provision time at which a notification is to be provided to the user; and a determination step of, using the hardware processor and upon judging affirmatively in the judgment step, selecting a level that matches a condition of the item at the provision time from among the plurality of levels, based on the condition information, and determining a notification linked to the level which is selected, to be the notification that is provided to the user, wherein each of the plurality of levels is a deterioration level indicating a degree of deterioration in quality of the item, the item is an item of clothing, and one or more of the notifications is a piece of coordination information that suggests using the item of clothing as a material for an objective of clothing coordination, each of the deterioration levels is linked to a piece of appearance information indicating effect on external appearance of the item when deterioration occurs to a degree indicated by the deterioration level, the condition information includes the image of the item and a capture time at which the image is captured by the camera, and in the determination step, a deterioration level most closely matching condition of the item at the provision time is selected from among the plurality of deterioration levels by comparing, with the pieces of appearance information linked to the deterioration levels, an image having a most recent capture time among images included in condition information acquired up until judging affirmatively in the judgment step.